CVE-2010-2867 in Shockwave Player
Summary
by MITRE
DIRAPIX.dll in Adobe Shockwave Player before 11.5.8.612 does not properly handle a certain return value associated with the rcsL chunk in a Director movie, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (heap memory corruption) or execute arbitrary code via a crafted movie, related to a "pointer offset vulnerability."
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/24/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2010-2867 resides within the DIRAPIX.dll component of Adobe Shockwave Player, specifically affecting versions prior to 11.5.8.612. This flaw represents a critical security issue that demonstrates improper handling of return values within the rcsL chunk processing of Director movies, creating a pathway for remote exploitation. The vulnerability manifests through the mishandling of pointer offset calculations during the parsing of multimedia content, which directly impacts the memory management mechanisms of the affected software.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when a maliciously crafted Director movie file is loaded by an unpatched Shockwave Player instance. The rcsL chunk within these files contains data structures that, when processed incorrectly by the DIRAPIX.dll library, result in heap memory corruption. This memory corruption stems from a pointer offset vulnerability where the software fails to properly validate or sanitize return values from specific internal functions. The flaw essentially allows attackers to manipulate memory pointers in a way that can overwrite critical memory locations, leading to either arbitrary code execution or system instability causing denial of service conditions. This type of vulnerability falls under CWE-125, which describes out-of-bounds read conditions, and CWE-787, which covers out-of-bounds write conditions, both of which are common in memory corruption vulnerabilities.
The operational impact of CVE-2010-2867 extends beyond simple denial of service scenarios to encompass full system compromise potential. Attackers leveraging this vulnerability can execute malicious code with the privileges of the affected user, potentially leading to complete system takeover. The remote nature of the attack means that victims need only view a maliciously crafted Director movie file to be compromised, making this vulnerability particularly dangerous in web-based environments where users frequently encounter multimedia content. This exploit capability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1203, which covers exploitation for client execution, and T1059, which covers command and scripting interpreter usage. The vulnerability's impact is particularly severe given that Shockwave Player was widely distributed and used for rich internet applications, making the attack surface extremely broad.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2010-2867 primarily focus on immediate software patching and implementation of network-based defenses. Organizations should prioritize updating to Adobe Shockwave Player version 11.5.8.612 or later, which contains the necessary fixes for the pointer offset vulnerability. Additionally, implementing network segmentation and content filtering can help prevent access to malicious Director movie files. Browser security settings should be configured to disable Shockwave Player plugins when not actively required, and regular security audits should monitor for any remaining instances of older versions. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of input validation and proper error handling in multimedia processing libraries, as the flaw demonstrates how insufficient validation of return values can lead to severe memory corruption issues. Security monitoring should include detection of unusual memory access patterns and heap corruption indicators that may signal exploitation attempts.