Zero-day vulnerability in Windows

Privilege escalation
CVE-2014-4077

CVE-2014-4077 used in targeted attack in the wild to bypass Adobe Reader Sandbox via binary hijacking using malicious DIC file.

Vulnerability details

Advisory: SB2014111102 - Privilege escalation in Microsoft Windows

Vulnerable component: Windows

CVE-ID: CVE-2014-4077

CVSSv3 score: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:H/RL:O/RC:C

CWE-ID: CWE-264 - Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

Description:

The vulnerability allows a remote authenticated attacker to obtain elevated privileges on the target system.

The weakness exists due to improper access control in Microsoft implementation of Input Method Editor (IME) for Japanese language. A remote attacker can create a specially crafted file designed to invoke a vulnerable sandboxed application, trick the victim into opening it, gain elevated privileges and execute arbitrary code with privileges of the current user.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability may result in arbitrary code execution on the vulnerable system.

Note: the vulnerability was being actively exploited.

External links:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/ms14-078
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2846204/microsoft-subnet/nov-2014-patch-tuesday-microsoft-releas...
https://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/microsoft-patch-tuesday-november-2014

About zero-day vulnerabilities

Zero-day vulnerability is an undisclosed vulnerability in software that hackers can exploit to compromise computer programs, gain unauthorized access to sensitive data, penetrate networks, etc. We consider vulnerability a zero-day when there is no solution provided from software vendor and the vulnerability is being actively exploited by malicious actors.

Zero-day candidate is a potential zero-day vulnerability in software which might have been used in targeted attacks, however there is no evidence to support this suggestion.