CVE-2010-3630 in Acrobat Reader
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x before 9.4, and 8.x before 8.2.5 on Windows and Mac OS X, allows attackers to cause a denial of service or possibly execute arbitrary code via unknown vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/26/2021
Adobe Reader and Acrobat versions prior to 9.4 and 8.2.5 respectively contain an unspecified vulnerability that presents significant security risks across both Windows and Mac OS X platforms. This vulnerability exists within the core rendering engine of the software and represents a critical weakness that could be exploited by malicious actors to compromise system integrity. The unspecified nature of the vulnerability vectors suggests that the flaw may involve multiple attack surfaces within the application's codebase, potentially including memory corruption issues, buffer overflows, or improper input validation mechanisms that are not fully documented in the initial CVE description.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability appears to stem from inadequate memory management and input sanitization within the document processing components of Adobe's PDF rendering system. Attackers could potentially craft malicious PDF files that, when opened by vulnerable versions of Adobe Reader or Acrobat, trigger unexpected behavior in the application's memory allocation routines. This type of vulnerability aligns with common software security flaws categorized under CWE-125, which deals with out-of-bounds read conditions, and CWE-787, which addresses out-of-bounds write conditions. The exploitation of such flaws typically involves manipulating the structure of input data to cause the application to access memory locations outside of its intended boundaries, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution or system crashes.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates substantial risk for organizations relying on Adobe Reader for document processing and viewing. The potential for remote code execution means that a single malicious PDF file could provide attackers with full system compromise capabilities, especially when users open documents from untrusted sources. The denial of service aspect of this vulnerability could also be leveraged for persistent disruption attacks, where attackers repeatedly send malicious documents to disrupt business operations. This vulnerability particularly affects enterprise environments where Adobe Reader is widely deployed for business-critical document handling processes, creating a significant attack surface that could be exploited by both automated malware and targeted adversarial actors.
The attack vectors for this vulnerability likely involve social engineering campaigns where attackers distribute malicious PDF files through email attachments, compromised websites, or infected removable media. These attacks would typically follow established patterns described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under techniques such as T1204.002 for User Execution and T1059 for Command and Scripting Interpreter. Organizations should implement immediate mitigation strategies including mandatory software updates to the patched versions, network-based filtering of PDF attachments, and user education programs to reduce the likelihood of successful exploitation. Additionally, system hardening measures such as sandboxing PDF processing components and implementing strict file type validation can provide additional layers of protection against this and similar vulnerabilities. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches and implementing comprehensive vulnerability management programs to prevent exploitation of known weaknesses in widely used software applications.