CVE-2010-3644 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-2010-3642, CVE-2010-3643, 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
Adobe Flash Player versions prior to 9.0.289.0 and 10.x before 10.1.102.64 on multiple operating systems including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris, as well as version 10.1.95.1 on Android, contained a memory corruption vulnerability that enabled remote code execution or denial of service attacks. This vulnerability represented a distinct threat vector from other related CVEs in the same timeframe, indicating a unique flaw in the Flash Player's memory management and code execution handling mechanisms. The unspecified nature of the attack vectors suggests that multiple pathways existed for exploitation, potentially involving heap corruption, buffer overflows, or other memory-related issues that could be leveraged by malicious actors to inject and execute arbitrary code within the context of the Flash Player application. The vulnerability's impact extended across multiple platforms, demonstrating the widespread nature of the memory corruption issue that affected different operating system environments with similar underlying architectural weaknesses. This particular vulnerability was classified under the CWE-119 weakness category, which encompasses memory safety issues and improper handling of memory resources, making it particularly dangerous as it could allow attackers to bypass security restrictions and gain unauthorized access to system resources. The attack surface was significantly expanded due to Flash Player's widespread deployment across various operating systems, making this vulnerability particularly attractive to threat actors seeking to compromise large numbers of systems simultaneously. The vulnerability could be exploited through malicious web content or files that, when processed by the vulnerable Flash Player, would trigger the memory corruption leading to arbitrary code execution or system instability. Organizations running affected versions of Flash Player faced significant risk as the vulnerability could be exploited without user interaction in many scenarios, particularly when Flash content was automatically executed by web browsers. The memory corruption aspect of this vulnerability aligned with ATT&CK technique T1059.007, which involves the use of scripting languages for execution, as the exploitation would likely involve manipulating Flash's scripting environment to achieve code injection. This vulnerability highlighted the inherent risks of complex multimedia frameworks that process untrusted content, as the memory management flaws in Flash Player created multiple potential entry points for attackers to gain unauthorized system access. The remediation required immediate patching of all affected Flash Player installations across all supported platforms, as the vulnerability could not be effectively mitigated through configuration changes or network-based defenses alone. Security professionals needed to prioritize this vulnerability due to its potential for remote code execution and the widespread deployment of Flash Player across enterprise and consumer environments, making it a critical component of any vulnerability management program during the period when these versions were in use. The vulnerability's classification as a memory corruption issue underscored the importance of proper input validation and memory safety practices in software development, particularly for applications that process external content and have extensive runtime capabilities.
The vulnerability's exploitation required attackers to craft malicious content that would trigger specific memory handling issues within Flash Player's runtime environment. The memory corruption aspect represented a fundamental flaw in how the application managed memory allocation and deallocation, potentially allowing attackers to overwrite critical memory structures or execute arbitrary code through carefully constructed input data. This type of vulnerability typically arises from insufficient bounds checking, improper memory deallocation, or other memory safety issues that are common in applications written in languages such as C or C++ where manual memory management is required. The fact that this vulnerability affected multiple operating systems indicated that the underlying memory management flaw was present in the core Flash Player codebase rather than being platform-specific, suggesting a systemic issue in the application's memory handling routines. Attackers could potentially leverage this vulnerability through web-based attacks where malicious Flash content would be loaded and executed in a browser context, or through other attack vectors that involved delivering Flash content to vulnerable systems. The vulnerability's classification as a memory corruption issue placed it within the broader context of software security weaknesses that require careful attention to memory management practices and proper input validation to prevent exploitation. Organizations needed to implement immediate patch management procedures to address this vulnerability, as the potential for remote code execution made it a high-priority security concern that required rapid remediation across all affected systems. The vulnerability's impact was particularly severe given Flash Player's role as a widely deployed plugin that enabled rich internet applications and multimedia content across various platforms, creating a broad attack surface that could be exploited by threat actors seeking to compromise multiple systems simultaneously. Security researchers and organizations needed to monitor closely for any indicators of exploitation attempts targeting this vulnerability, as the memory corruption nature of the flaw could enable sophisticated attack techniques that were difficult to detect through traditional security monitoring approaches. The vulnerability's resolution required updating to patched versions of Flash Player that addressed the specific memory handling issues, with no viable workarounds or configuration changes that could effectively prevent exploitation of this particular flaw.