CVE-2011-0621 in Flash Player
Summary
by MITRE
Adobe Flash Player before 10.3.181.14 on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris and before 10.3.185.21 on Android allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2011-0619, CVE-2011-0620, and CVE-2011-0622.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/07/2021
Adobe Flash Player versions prior to 10.3.181.14 on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris systems and before 10.3.185.21 on Android devices contained a critical memory corruption vulnerability that enabled remote code execution attacks. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-119 weakness category, which encompasses memory corruption issues that occur when a program attempts to access memory in an unauthorized manner. The flaw manifested as an out-of-bounds memory access condition that could be exploited by malicious actors to manipulate program execution flow and ultimately achieve arbitrary code execution on vulnerable systems.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from improper input validation and memory management within the Flash Player runtime environment. Attackers could craft specially crafted Flash content or web pages that, when processed by the vulnerable Flash Player, would trigger memory corruption conditions. These conditions typically involved buffer overflows or use-after-free scenarios that allowed attackers to overwrite critical memory locations or inject malicious code into the target system's memory space. The vulnerability was particularly dangerous because it could be triggered through web browsers without requiring any special privileges or user interaction beyond visiting a malicious website.
The operational impact of this vulnerability was severe across multiple platforms and operating systems. Organizations running affected Flash Player versions faced significant risk of compromise, as the vulnerability could be exploited through standard web browsing activities. The attack surface was particularly broad since Flash Player was widely deployed across enterprise networks and consumer devices. This made the vulnerability attractive to threat actors who could leverage it to establish persistent access, escalate privileges, or deploy additional malware payloads. The denial of service aspect of the vulnerability meant that even successful exploitation attempts could result in system instability or complete service disruption.
Security professionals should have immediately implemented mitigation strategies including mandatory Flash Player updates, browser-based security controls, and network monitoring to detect exploitation attempts. The vulnerability highlighted the importance of maintaining up-to-date software components and implementing defense-in-depth strategies. Organizations should have reviewed their patch management processes and ensured that critical security updates were deployed promptly across all systems. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this type of vulnerability under T1059 for command and scripting interpreter and T1203 for exploitation for execution, demonstrating how such memory corruption flaws can be leveraged to establish persistent access and execute malicious commands within compromised environments. Proper incident response procedures should have been activated to monitor for signs of exploitation and contain any potential breaches that occurred during the vulnerability's active period.