CVE-2011-0605 in Acrobat Reader
Summary
by MITRE
Adobe Reader and Acrobat 10.x before 10.0.1, 9.x before 9.4.2, and 8.x before 8.2.6 on Mac OS X allow attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unspecified vectors.
Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/22/2025
Adobe Reader and Acrobat versions prior to the specified patches contain critical memory corruption vulnerabilities on Mac OS X systems that could enable remote code execution or denial of service attacks. These vulnerabilities affect multiple product versions including 10.x before 10.0.1, 9.x before 9.4.2, and 8.x before 8.2.6, representing a significant security risk for users running these older software versions. The unspecified attack vectors suggest that multiple code paths within the application could be exploited, making the vulnerability particularly dangerous as attackers could potentially leverage various methods to trigger the memory corruption. This type of vulnerability typically arises from improper handling of memory allocation and deallocation, often involving buffer overflows, use-after-free conditions, or other memory management flaws that can be manipulated by malicious actors to execute arbitrary code or cause application crashes.
The technical nature of these vulnerabilities aligns with common CWE categories such as CWE-125: Out-of-bounds Read and CWE-787: Out-of-bounds Write, which are frequently found in document processing applications like Adobe Reader. The memory corruption issues could be triggered through crafted PDF files that exploit improper input validation or memory handling within the application's parser. Attackers could potentially construct malicious PDF documents that, when opened by an affected version of Adobe Reader or Acrobat, would cause the application to corrupt memory structures and either execute attacker-controlled code or crash the application entirely. This represents a classic exploit scenario where the vulnerability exists in the application's handling of user-supplied data, specifically PDF content that is processed by the vulnerable software components.
From an operational impact perspective, these vulnerabilities present a severe threat to organizations relying on Adobe Reader for document processing, as they could enable attackers to gain arbitrary code execution on target systems. The attack surface is particularly concerning given that Adobe Reader is widely deployed across enterprise environments and is often used to open documents from untrusted sources. The potential for remote code execution means that attackers could establish persistent access to compromised systems, potentially leading to data breaches, lateral movement within networks, or the deployment of additional malicious software. The denial of service component adds to the operational risk as it could be used to disrupt business operations through application crashes or system instability, particularly in environments where document processing is critical to daily operations.
Organizations should prioritize immediate patching of affected Adobe Reader and Acrobat installations to remediate these vulnerabilities, as the attack vectors are likely to be actively exploited in the wild. The recommended mitigation strategy includes updating to Adobe Reader and Acrobat versions 10.0.1, 9.4.2, and 8.2.6 respectively, which contain the necessary security fixes. Additionally, implementing application whitelisting policies to restrict execution of Adobe Reader from untrusted sources, enabling sandboxing features where available, and deploying network-based intrusion detection systems to monitor for exploitation attempts can provide additional layers of defense. Security teams should also consider implementing endpoint protection solutions that can detect and prevent the execution of malicious PDF files that may exploit these vulnerabilities. The ATT&CK framework would classify these vulnerabilities under techniques such as T1203: Exploitation for Client Execution and T1489: Service Stop, as they enable both code execution and potential service disruption. Organizations should also conduct vulnerability assessments to identify any remaining systems that may still be running vulnerable versions and ensure comprehensive security monitoring to detect potential exploitation attempts.