CVE-2016-0954 in Digital Editions
Summary
by MITRE
Adobe Digital Editions before 4.5.1 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/03/2025
Adobe Digital Editions version 4.5.1 and earlier contains a critical vulnerability that enables remote code execution and denial of service conditions through unspecified attack vectors. This vulnerability represents a significant security flaw in Adobe's digital publishing software that handles EPUB and PDF documents. The memory corruption issue stems from improper input validation and handling of malformed document structures that can be exploited by malicious actors to gain unauthorized system access or disrupt service availability. The vulnerability affects users who process untrusted digital content through Adobe Digital Editions, making it particularly dangerous in environments where users frequently download and open documents from external sources.
The technical nature of this vulnerability involves memory corruption patterns that can be triggered when Adobe Digital Editions processes specially crafted documents containing malformed data structures. Attackers can leverage this flaw to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the affected user, potentially leading to complete system compromise. The unspecified vectors suggest that multiple entry points within the software's document parsing engine could be exploited, including but not limited to XML processing, image handling, or document metadata parsing components. This broad attack surface increases the likelihood of successful exploitation and makes defensive measures more challenging to implement effectively.
The operational impact of CVE-2016-0954 extends beyond simple exploitation scenarios, as it affects organizations relying on Adobe Digital Editions for digital content distribution and consumption. Enterprises using this software for e-book distribution, educational institutions providing digital textbooks, or publishers managing digital content are all at risk from potential attackers who could use this vulnerability to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information or disrupt operations through denial of service attacks. The vulnerability's potential for remote code execution means that attackers could install malware, steal data, or establish persistent access to compromised systems without requiring physical presence or additional authentication. This makes the vulnerability particularly attractive to threat actors seeking to conduct large-scale attacks against organizations using Adobe Digital Editions.
Organizations should prioritize immediate patching of Adobe Digital Editions to version 4.5.1 or later, as this update addresses the underlying memory corruption issues. Security teams should implement network monitoring to detect potential exploitation attempts and consider restricting access to potentially malicious documents through content filtering mechanisms. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-121, which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and may also relate to CWE-122 for heap-based buffer overflows, both of which are common in document processing software. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving execution through exploitation of software vulnerabilities, potentially leading to privilege escalation and persistent access. Organizations should also consider implementing application whitelisting policies to prevent execution of untrusted documents and maintain comprehensive incident response procedures to address potential exploitation attempts.