Zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player

Use-after-free
CVE-2018-4878

KR-CERT reported in the wild exploitation of zero-day vulnerability in the latest version of Adobe Flash Player. According to the South Korean Computer Emergency Response Team (KR-CERT), the exploit has being used in the wild since mid-November 2017.

Security experts for FireEye linked the vulnerability to the hacking group TEMP.Reaper. The IP-addresses from which attacks were connected with the C&C-servers belong to the Internet provider Star JV - a joint venture of North Korea and Thailand.

Cisco Talos observed use of vulnerability in attacks conducted by Group 123.

According to FireEye, after successful exploitation of the vulnerability the system is infected with DOGCALL malware.

Cisco Talos specialists also reported cyberattacks using the malicious software, which they called Rokrat.

As revealed by security experts for Morphisec Labs Michael Gorelik and Assaf Kachlon the vulnerability has been used in a watering hole attack against Hong Kong Telecommunications company.

Known malware:

DOGCALL
Rokrat

Vulnerability details

Advisory: SB2018020120 - Remote code execution in Adobe Flash Player

Vulnerable component: Adobe Flash Player

CVE-ID: CVE-2018-4878

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 vulnerability exists due to a use-after-free error when processing .swf files. A remote attacker can execute arbitrary code on the target system.

Note: this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild against the latest version of Adobe Flash Player.

UPDATE: The vendor has issued the fixed version on February 6, 2018.

Public Exploits:

- Flash ActiveX 28.0.0.137 - Code Execution (1) [Exploit-DB]

- Flash ActiveX 28.0.0.137 - Code Execution (2) [Exploit-DB]

- Adobe Flash < 28.0.0.161 - Use-After-Free [Exploit-DB]

External links:

https://www.krcert.or.kr/data/secNoticeView.do?bulletin_writing_sequence=26998
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-adobe-flash-zero-day-spotted-in-the-wild/
https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2018/02/attacks-leveraging-adobe-zero-day.html
http://blog.talosintelligence.com/2018/02/group-123-goes-wild.html
http://blog.morphisec.com/watering-hole-attack-hong-kong-telecom-site-flash-exploit-cve-2018-4878

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.