CVE-2014-4080 in Internet Explorer
Summary
by MITRE
Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 and 11 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via a crafted web site, aka "Internet Explorer Memory Corruption Vulnerability," a different vulnerability than CVE-2014-4089, CVE-2014-4091, and CVE-2014-4102.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/15/2022
This vulnerability affects Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 10 and 11, representing a critical memory corruption flaw that enables remote code execution or denial of service attacks. The vulnerability stems from improper handling of memory operations within the browser's rendering engine, specifically when processing crafted web content that triggers heap corruption or stack overflow conditions. Attackers can exploit this weakness by hosting malicious web pages that, when visited by victims using affected IE versions, automatically execute malicious code in the context of the user's session.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves memory management flaws that occur during the processing of specific web elements such as HTML objects, JavaScript constructs, or ActiveX controls. When Internet Explorer encounters malformed or specially crafted content, the browser's memory allocation and deallocation mechanisms fail to properly validate input data, leading to memory corruption that can be leveraged to overwrite critical memory locations. This memory corruption typically manifests through heap-based buffer overflows or use-after-free conditions that allow attackers to inject and execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the browser.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents significant risk to organizations as it enables attackers to gain full control over affected systems without requiring any user interaction beyond visiting a malicious website. The exploitability of this vulnerability is enhanced by the widespread adoption of Internet Explorer in enterprise environments, making it an attractive target for nation-state actors and cybercriminals seeking persistent access to corporate networks. The memory corruption aspect also makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous as it can lead to system crashes, data corruption, or complete system compromise depending on the specific memory locations overwritten during the exploitation process.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-125, which describes out-of-bounds read conditions, and CWE-787, which covers out-of-bounds write operations, both of which are common manifestations of memory corruption flaws in browser environments. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques such as T1059 for command and scripting interpreter usage and T1203 for exploitation for client execution, as attackers can leverage the memory corruption to execute malicious payloads that establish persistent access or escalate privileges within compromised systems. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including deploying Microsoft security patches, implementing browser hardening measures, and considering browser isolation techniques to reduce the attack surface. Additionally, network-based protections such as web application firewalls and content filtering solutions can help detect and block exploitation attempts targeting this specific vulnerability.