CVE-2016-1012 in Flash Player
Summary
by MITRE • 01/26/2023
Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.343 and 19.x through 21.x before 21.0.0.213 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.616 on Linux allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-1020, CVE-2016-1021, CVE-2016-1022, CVE-2016-1023, CVE-2016-1024, CVE-2016-1025, CVE-2016-1026, CVE-2016-1027, CVE-2016-1028, CVE-2016-1029, CVE-2016-1032, and CVE-2016-1033.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/26/2023
Adobe Flash Player versions prior to specific patched releases contained a critical memory corruption vulnerability that enabled remote code execution and denial of service attacks. This vulnerability affected Windows and macOS systems running Flash Player versions before 18.0.0.343 and 19.x through 21.x before 21.0.0.213, as well as Linux systems before 11.2.202.616. The flaw manifested through unspecified attack vectors that differed from other contemporaneous vulnerabilities in the same advisory, indicating a distinct code path within the Flash Player runtime environment. The memory corruption issue occurred during the processing of malformed multimedia content or embedded scripts within flash files, allowing attackers to manipulate memory layout and potentially execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the Flash Player application.
The technical nature of this vulnerability aligns with common software security weaknesses identified under CWE-125, which describes out-of-bounds read conditions, and CWE-787, which covers out-of-bounds write operations. These memory corruption flaws typically arise from inadequate bounds checking during buffer operations or improper handling of user-supplied data within multimedia processing components. The vulnerability exploited the inherent complexity of Flash Player's multimedia rendering engine, which processes various media formats including video, audio, and interactive content. Attackers could craft malicious flash content that, when loaded by an affected Flash Player installation, would trigger memory corruption during normal execution flow. The attack surface was particularly broad as Flash Player was widely deployed across web browsers and applications, making exploitation relatively straightforward for threat actors targeting end-user systems.
The operational impact of this vulnerability was severe, as it provided attackers with a pathway to achieve arbitrary code execution on vulnerable systems. This capability enabled full system compromise, data exfiltration, and persistence mechanisms through the execution of malicious payloads. Organizations relying on Flash Player for web content delivery faced significant risk exposure, as the vulnerability could be exploited through standard web browsing activities without requiring user interaction beyond visiting compromised websites. The denial of service aspect of this vulnerability further compounded the risk, as attackers could potentially crash Flash Player processes or entire systems, creating availability issues that could be leveraged for more sophisticated attack campaigns. The vulnerability's presence in multiple Flash Player versions across different operating systems meant that organizations needed to urgently patch their environments to prevent exploitation, as the attack surface was extensive and the potential for widespread compromise was high.
Organizations should have immediately deployed patches released by Adobe to address this vulnerability, ensuring all affected Flash Player installations were updated to versions 18.0.0.343, 21.0.0.213, or 11.2.202.616 depending on their operating system. Network administrators should have implemented content filtering measures to block potentially malicious flash content and monitored for exploitation attempts through network traffic analysis. Security teams should have conducted comprehensive vulnerability assessments to identify all systems running vulnerable Flash Player versions and prioritized remediation efforts accordingly. The remediation process should have included not only patching but also decommissioning Flash Player where possible, as the vulnerability landscape for Flash Player was increasingly problematic. From an enterprise security perspective, this vulnerability highlighted the need for comprehensive application whitelisting policies and the importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches across all software components. The incident also reinforced the broader security principle that legacy multimedia technologies pose significant risk when deployed in enterprise environments, as they often contain complex codebases with numerous potential attack vectors that are difficult to fully secure. Organizations should have also considered implementing additional security controls such as sandboxing mechanisms and web application firewalls to provide defense-in-depth against similar vulnerabilities in the future. The vulnerability's classification under attack frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK's T1059.007 for command and script interpreter and T1203 for exploitation for client execution demonstrates its potential for establishing persistent access and executing malicious commands through compromised Flash Player installations.