CVE-2014-0550 in Flash Player
Summary
by MITRE
Adobe Flash Player before 13.0.0.244 and 14.x and 15.x before 15.0.0.152 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.406 on Linux, Adobe AIR before 15.0.0.249 on Windows and OS X and before 15.0.0.252 on Android, Adobe AIR SDK before 15.0.0.249, and Adobe AIR SDK & Compiler before 15.0.0.249 allow attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2014-0547, CVE-2014-0549, CVE-2014-0551, CVE-2014-0552, and CVE-2014-0555.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/15/2022
Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR implementations contained a critical memory corruption vulnerability that enabled remote code execution attacks through unspecified attack vectors. This vulnerability affected multiple product versions across different operating systems and platforms, with specific patched versions identified for each target environment. The flaw manifested as heap-based buffer overflows and memory corruption issues that occurred during the processing of malformed multimedia content or specific ActionScript code sequences. Attackers could exploit this vulnerability by crafting malicious SWF files or web content that would trigger the memory corruption when processed by the vulnerable Flash Player or AIR runtime environments. The vulnerability represented a significant security risk as it allowed attackers to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the affected user, potentially leading to complete system compromise. This issue was categorized under CWE-125 as out-of-bounds read conditions and CWE-787 as out-of-bounds write conditions, both of which fall under the broader category of memory safety vulnerabilities. The attack surface was particularly concerning given Flash Player's widespread deployment across Windows, OS X, and Linux systems, as well as its integration with various web browsers and applications. The vulnerability's impact extended beyond traditional web browsing scenarios since Adobe AIR applications could also be exploited, potentially affecting desktop applications that utilized the AIR runtime. Security researchers noted that this vulnerability was distinct from several other related issues in the same timeframe, indicating a unique exploitation mechanism that required specific conditions to be met. The memory corruption patterns observed in this vulnerability aligned with typical exploitation techniques used in advanced persistent threat campaigns, where attackers would leverage such flaws to establish persistent access to compromised systems. Organizations deploying affected versions of Flash Player and AIR runtime environments faced significant risk of exploitation, particularly in environments where users had unrestricted access to web content. The vulnerability's exploitation required minimal user interaction in many cases, often only requiring the user to visit a malicious website or open a specially crafted file. From an operational perspective, this vulnerability demonstrated the ongoing challenges in securing rich internet applications and multimedia frameworks that had complex parsing logic and extensive memory management requirements. The affected versions included major releases across multiple product lines, indicating a widespread impact that required coordinated patch management across different software ecosystems. Security analysts recommended immediate patching of all affected systems and implementation of network-based protections to prevent exploitation attempts. The vulnerability also highlighted the importance of application sandboxing and privilege separation in modern security architectures, as the memory corruption could potentially be leveraged to bypass system security controls. Organizations needed to implement comprehensive vulnerability management processes to identify and remediate similar issues in other Adobe products and third-party applications that might be similarly affected by memory corruption vulnerabilities in their runtime environments. The incident underscored the critical need for regular security assessments of multimedia frameworks and rich client applications that continue to play significant roles in enterprise and consumer computing environments.