CVE-2011-2424 in Flash Player
Summary
by MITRE
Adobe Flash Player before 10.3.183.5 on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris and before 10.3.186.3 on Android, and Adobe AIR before 2.7.1 on Windows and Mac OS X and before 2.7.1.1961 on Android, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via a crafted SWF file, as demonstrated by "about 400 unique crash signatures."
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/18/2021
Adobe Flash Player and AIR suffered from a critical memory corruption vulnerability that enabled remote code execution through maliciously crafted SWF files. This vulnerability affected multiple platforms including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, and Android, with different version thresholds for each operating system. The flaw manifested as a heap-based buffer overflow or memory corruption issue that could be triggered when the vulnerable software attempted to process specially crafted multimedia content. Attackers could exploit this vulnerability by delivering a malicious SWF file through various attack vectors including web browsers, email attachments, or malicious websites. The vulnerability's exploitation could result in arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the affected user or cause denial of service conditions through application crashes.
The technical nature of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-125, which describes out-of-bounds read conditions, and CWE-787, which covers out-of-bounds write operations. These memory corruption flaws typically occur when applications fail to properly validate input data before processing it, particularly in multimedia parsing routines. The vulnerability's impact was significant as Flash Player was widely deployed across multiple operating systems and devices, making it an attractive target for attackers seeking to compromise user systems. The demonstration of approximately 400 unique crash signatures indicates the complexity and widespread nature of the memory corruption issues present in the affected software versions.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability created substantial risk for organizations and individual users who relied on Flash content for web browsing and multimedia applications. The exploitability of this vulnerability meant that attackers could remotely compromise systems without requiring user interaction beyond visiting a malicious website or opening a compromised email attachment. Security professionals had to urgently patch affected systems across multiple platforms, as the vulnerability affected both desktop and mobile operating systems. The incident highlighted the importance of timely security updates and the risks associated with widely deployed multimedia frameworks that handle untrusted content.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability required immediate deployment of security patches provided by Adobe, which addressed the underlying memory corruption issues in the Flash Player and AIR runtime environments. Organizations needed to implement comprehensive patch management processes to ensure all affected systems received updates promptly. Network administrators should have considered implementing web filtering and content validation measures to prevent access to potentially malicious SWF content. The vulnerability underscored the need for principle of least privilege configurations and user education regarding safe browsing practices. Security monitoring systems needed to be updated to detect exploitation attempts through unusual memory access patterns or application crash signatures. Additionally, organizations should have considered alternative approaches to multimedia delivery that did not rely on the vulnerable Flash runtime environment, particularly as the technology was increasingly being phased out due to security concerns.