CVE-2010-3642 in Flash Player
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player before 9.0.289.0 and 10.x before 10.1.102.64 on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris, and 10.1.95.1 on Android, allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unknown vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2010-3640, CVE-2010-3641, CVE-2010-3643, CVE-2010-3644, CVE-2010-3645, CVE-2010-3646, CVE-2010-3647, CVE-2010-3648, CVE-2010-3649, CVE-2010-3650, and CVE-2010-3652.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/28/2021
This vulnerability represents a critical memory corruption flaw within Adobe Flash Player that affects multiple operating systems and platforms. The unspecified nature of the attack vectors indicates that the vulnerability stems from an unknown mechanism that could potentially be exploited through various means to achieve arbitrary code execution or denial of service conditions. The vulnerability exists in Flash Player versions prior to 9.0.289.0 for legacy versions and 10.1.102.64 for newer versions across Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris platforms, while Android versions are affected through 10.1.95.1. The fact that this vulnerability is distinct from several other related CVEs in the same year demonstrates that it represents a separate code path or memory handling mechanism that was not addressed by the patches for the other reported issues. From a cybersecurity perspective, this vulnerability would have been particularly dangerous because Flash Player was widely deployed across the internet and often executed in web browsers without user awareness, creating numerous potential attack surfaces for threat actors to exploit.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability likely involves memory corruption mechanisms that could be triggered through malformed Flash content or malicious SWF files. Memory corruption vulnerabilities typically occur when applications fail to properly validate input data or when buffer overflows, use-after-free conditions, or other memory management errors occur during processing of multimedia content. The cross-platform nature of this vulnerability indicates that the underlying memory corruption issue was present in the core Flash Player engine regardless of the operating system environment, suggesting that the flaw was in the platform-independent code components rather than in OS-specific APIs or libraries. This characteristic makes the vulnerability particularly challenging to mitigate because it requires updating the Flash Player engine across all supported platforms rather than addressing platform-specific issues. The vulnerability would have been classified under CWE-119 in the Common Weakness Enumeration taxonomy, which covers "Improper Access to Memory" and encompasses various memory corruption vulnerabilities that can lead to arbitrary code execution.
The operational impact of this vulnerability was substantial given Flash Player's widespread adoption and integration into web browsing experiences across multiple platforms. Organizations and end-users who had not yet applied the relevant patches would have been exposed to potential compromise through drive-by downloads or malicious websites that delivered exploit code. The vulnerability could have enabled attackers to execute malicious code with the privileges of the Flash Player process, potentially leading to full system compromise or persistent backdoor installation. Additionally, the denial of service component of this vulnerability could have been used to disrupt legitimate services or applications that relied on Flash Player functionality, creating operational disruption for businesses and individuals. From an attacker's perspective, this vulnerability would have been attractive because it required no specialized knowledge of the target system beyond the ability to deliver Flash content, making it suitable for mass exploitation campaigns. The vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for "Command and Scripting Interpreter: Visual Basic" and T1068 for "Exploitation for Privilege Escalation" when considering the typical exploitation patterns of such memory corruption vulnerabilities.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability required immediate patch deployment across all affected systems, as there were no viable workarounds or temporary fixes available for the memory corruption issue. Organizations should have implemented comprehensive patch management procedures to ensure all instances of Flash Player were updated to the patched versions, particularly focusing on systems that were not regularly updated or had legacy Flash content requirements. The vulnerability highlighted the importance of maintaining up-to-date multimedia plugins and the risks associated with running outdated software components in enterprise environments. Security teams should have monitored for exploitation attempts through network traffic analysis and endpoint detection systems, as the memory corruption could have been detected through anomalous process behavior or memory access patterns. The vulnerability also underscored the need for application whitelisting policies that could prevent execution of unpatched Flash Player versions and the importance of web content filtering to block potentially malicious Flash content. Organizations should have reviewed their web application security policies to ensure that Flash content was properly sanitized and that users were not automatically executing Flash content without explicit consent, as this vulnerability could have been exploited through automatic execution of malicious SWF files embedded in web pages.