Zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Reader

Use-after-free error
CVE-2009-4324

Known malware:

Trojan.Pidief.H

Vulnerability details

Advisory: SB2009121501 - Remote code execution in Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader

Vulnerable component: Adobe Reader

CVE-ID: CVE-2009-4324

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

CWE-ID: CWE-416 - Use After Free

Description:

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the target system.

The weakness exists due to use-after-free error in the Doc.media.newPlayer method in Multimedia.api. A remote attacker can create a specially crafted .pdf file, trick the victim into opening it, trigger memory corruption and execute arbitrary code on the target system with privileges of the current user.

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

Note: the vulnerability was being actively exploited.

Known APT campaigns:

Operation Aurora

Operation Aurora is a series of cyber attacks conducted since mid-2009. Such name was given by Dmitri Alperovitch of McAfee.

The operation was discovered by Google in January, 2010 and is considered to have Chinese origin.

The hackers targeted not only Google but also Yahoo, Symantec, Juniper Networks, Adobe, Northrop Grumman ╨╕ Dow Chemical.

Symantec identified the group behind the operation "Elderwood", Dell Secureworks - "Beijing Group".

Public Exploits:

- Adobe - Doc.media.newPlayer Use-After-Free (Metasploit) (2) [Exploit-DB]

- Adobe - Doc.media.newPlayer Use-After-Free (Metasploit) (1) [Exploit-DB]

- Adobe Reader and Acrobat - Exploit [Exploit-DB]

External links:

http://www.adobe.com/support/security/advisories/apsa09-07.html
http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb10-02.html
https://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/zero-day-xmas-present
https://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2009-121511-4614-99
http://www.shadowserver.org/wiki/pmwiki.php/Calendar/20091214
http://contagiodump.blogspot.com/2009/12/virustotal-httpwww.html
http://blogs.adobe.com/psirt/?p=74
https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Sophisticated%2C+targeted+malicious+PDF+documents+exploiting+CVE-2009-432...
http://www.welivesecurity.com/2010/01/04/adobe-javascript-and-the-cve-2009-4324-exploit/http://temer...
http://www.bitdefender.com/news/critical-zero-day-exploits-hit-internet-explorer-and-adobe-reader-12...
https://www.decalage.info/exefilter_pdf_exploits
https://fe-ddis.dk/cfcs/CFCSDocuments/Zeroday.pdf
https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~tdumitra/public_documents/bilge12_zero_day.pdf
http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/new-adobe-zero-day-vulnerability-again/

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.