CVE-2014-8446 in Acrobat Reader
Summary
by MITRE
Adobe Reader and Acrobat 10.x before 10.1.13 and 11.x before 11.0.10 on Windows and OS X allow attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2014-8445, CVE-2014-8447, CVE-2014-8456, CVE-2014-8458, CVE-2014-8459, CVE-2014-8461, and CVE-2014-9158.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/27/2022
Adobe Reader and Acrobat versions 10.x prior to 10.1.13 and 11.x prior to 11.0.10 contain a critical memory corruption vulnerability on both Windows and macOS operating systems that presents significant security risks to organizations relying on these document viewing applications. This vulnerability represents a distinct threat vector from several other related CVEs published in the same timeframe, indicating a complex attack surface within Adobe's PDF processing engine. The unspecified nature of the attack vectors suggests that multiple code paths within the application may be susceptible to memory corruption attacks, potentially including improper handling of malformed PDF objects or buffer overflows during document parsing operations.
The technical flaw manifests as memory corruption that can be exploited by remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable systems or cause denial of service conditions through application crashes. This type of vulnerability typically occurs when the application fails to properly validate input data or manage memory allocation during PDF document processing, leading to situations where attacker-controlled data can overwrite critical memory locations. The vulnerability's classification aligns with CWE-121, which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and CWE-122, which covers heap-based buffer overflow scenarios, both of which are common in PDF processing engines due to the complex nature of the PDF format specification.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability poses severe risks to enterprise environments where Adobe Reader and Acrobat are widely deployed for document viewing and processing. Attackers could leverage this weakness to gain unauthorized code execution privileges on target systems, potentially leading to complete system compromise, data exfiltration, or lateral movement within networks. The memory corruption aspect means that successful exploitation could result in application crashes that might be used for denial of service attacks against critical business operations. Organizations running legacy versions of Adobe Reader and Acrobat face heightened risk of targeted attacks, particularly in environments where these applications are frequently used to open email attachments or download documents from untrusted sources.
Security professionals should prioritize immediate patch deployment for all affected Adobe Reader and Acrobat installations, as the vulnerability exists in widely used enterprise applications with significant attack surface potential. Organizations should implement network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure of vulnerable systems, while also monitoring for suspicious network activity or system behavior that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability's relationship to other CVEs in the same advisory period suggests that Adobe's PDF processing engine contained multiple related weaknesses that required comprehensive patching. According to ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability maps to T1059.007 for command and scripting interpreter and T1489 for denial of service, indicating both code execution and system availability attack vectors that require immediate remediation to prevent exploitation in targeted campaigns.