CVE-2013-3354 in Acrobat Reader
Summary
by MITRE
Adobe Reader and Acrobat before 10.1.8 and 11.x before 11.0.04 on Windows and Mac OS X allow attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2013-3352 and CVE-2013-3355.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/15/2018
Adobe Reader and Acrobat versions prior to 10.1.8 on Windows and Mac OS X platforms contained a critical memory corruption vulnerability that enabled remote code execution and denial of service attacks. This vulnerability manifested through unspecified attack vectors that differed from the related CVE-2013-3352 and CVE-2013-3355, indicating a distinct code path within the software's processing mechanisms. The flaw occurred within the document parsing and rendering components of Adobe's PDF processing engine, specifically when handling malformed or specially crafted PDF files that could trigger memory corruption conditions.
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 writes in buffer operations. Attackers could exploit this weakness by crafting malicious PDF documents that, when opened by an affected Adobe Reader or Acrobat version, would cause memory corruption in the application's heap management system. This memory corruption could lead to arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the current user, effectively allowing remote attackers to take complete control of the affected system. The vulnerability's impact extended beyond simple code execution to include denial of service scenarios where system resources could be exhausted or application processes could crash repeatedly.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability represented a significant risk to enterprise environments where Adobe Reader was widely deployed for document viewing and processing. The attack surface was extensive given that PDF documents were commonly shared via email, web downloads, and file transfers, making exploitation highly probable. Organizations running older versions of Adobe Reader and Acrobat faced potential compromise of their entire document processing infrastructure, as attackers could leverage this vulnerability to establish persistent access points or disrupt business operations through denial of service conditions. The vulnerability's classification under the ATT&CK framework would fall within the privilege escalation and code execution domains, specifically targeting the execution of malicious payloads through document-based attack vectors.
Organizations should have immediately deployed patches from Adobe's security advisories to remediate this vulnerability, ensuring that all users of Adobe Reader and Acrobat were updated to versions 10.1.8 or 11.0.04, respectively. Additional mitigations included implementing strict PDF document filtering at network perimeters, disabling PDF plugin execution in web browsers, and conducting comprehensive security awareness training for users to recognize potentially malicious PDF attachments. System administrators should have also implemented monitoring solutions to detect unusual PDF processing activities that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability highlighted the importance of maintaining up-to-date software patches and implementing defense-in-depth strategies to protect against zero-day exploits that could compromise critical enterprise infrastructure through widely used productivity applications.