CVE-2010-3653 in Shockwave Player
Summary
by MITRE
The Director module (dirapi.dll) in Adobe Shockwave Player before 11.5.9.615 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via a Director movie with a crafted rcsL chunk containing a field whose value is used as a pointer offset, as exploited in the wild in October 2010. NOTE: some of these details are obtained from third party information.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/08/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2010-3653 resides within Adobe Shockwave Player's Director module, specifically in the dirapi.dll component, affecting versions prior to 11.5.9.615. This flaw represents a critical memory corruption issue that enables remote code execution and denial of service conditions. The vulnerability manifests when processing Director movies that contain a specially crafted rcsL chunk, which is a data structure used within Shockwave files to store various movie properties and configurations. The exploitation technique leverages a field within this chunk whose value is subsequently interpreted as a pointer offset, creating a dangerous scenario where attacker-controlled data directly influences memory access patterns.
The technical exploitation mechanism involves manipulating the rcsL chunk structure to inject malicious pointer values that, when processed by the Director module, result in memory corruption. This type of vulnerability falls under CWE-125, which describes out-of-bounds read conditions where a program reads data past the end of a buffer or other data structure. The flaw operates at the intersection of memory management and data parsing, where the Director module fails to properly validate or sanitize the pointer offset values extracted from the malicious rcsL chunk. When these invalid offsets are dereferenced, they can point to arbitrary memory locations, enabling attackers to either execute arbitrary code or cause the application to crash through controlled memory corruption.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability was actively exploited in the wild during October 2010, demonstrating its significance and the real-world threat it posed to users. The attack vector requires only a user to open a malicious Shockwave movie file, making it particularly dangerous in phishing campaigns or malicious websites. The impact extends beyond simple exploitation to include potential privilege escalation scenarios, as the memory corruption could be leveraged to gain elevated system privileges. The vulnerability's exploitation aligns with ATT&CK technique T1203, which covers exploitation for execution through the manipulation of memory structures and pointer handling.
The remediation approach for CVE-2010-3653 requires immediate patching of Adobe Shockwave Player to version 11.5.9.615 or later, which includes proper validation of pointer offset values within the rcsL chunk processing. Organizations should implement network-level controls to block Shockwave content where possible, as the vulnerability affects a widely deployed multimedia plugin. Security professionals should also consider implementing application whitelisting policies that restrict execution of vulnerable Shockwave components. Additionally, monitoring for suspicious Shockwave file downloads and processing activities can help detect potential exploitation attempts. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper input validation and memory safety practices in multimedia processing libraries, particularly those handling untrusted data from external sources. Organizations should also conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments to identify other potentially affected applications that may use similar parsing mechanisms. The incident serves as a reminder of the critical need for regular security updates and the dangers posed by legacy multimedia plugins that continue to receive limited security support.