CVE-2017-14303 in STDU Viewer
Summary
by MITRE
STDU Viewer 1.6.375 allows attackers to cause a denial of service or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted .jb2 file, related to a "Read Access Violation starting at STDUJBIG2File!DllGetClassObject+0x0000000000003047."
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/15/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-14303 affects STDU Viewer version 1.6.375, a document viewing application that processes various file formats including the JB2 format used for bi-level image compression. This flaw represents a critical security issue that can be exploited through maliciously crafted .jb2 files, potentially leading to system instability or unauthorized code execution. The vulnerability manifests as a read access violation within the STDUJBIG2File.dll dynamic link library, specifically occurring at the DllGetClassObject function offset 0x3047, which indicates a fundamental memory management failure in the application's handling of external file inputs.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and memory management within the STDU Viewer's JB2 file processing module. When the application attempts to parse a malformed .jb2 file, the memory access violation occurs during the class object retrieval process, suggesting that the application fails to properly sanitize or validate the structure of incoming JB2 data before attempting to instantiate or manipulate objects. This type of vulnerability aligns with CWE-125, which describes out-of-bounds read conditions, and CWE-787, which covers out-of-bounds write vulnerabilities, both of which fall under the broader category of memory safety issues. The specific location of the violation at DllGetClassObject indicates that the exploitation could potentially leverage the COM component loading mechanism to execute arbitrary code or cause the application to crash.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents significant risks to organizations relying on STDU Viewer for document processing, particularly in environments where untrusted file inputs are common. The potential for denial of service means that attackers could disrupt legitimate business operations by causing the application to crash or become unresponsive, while the unspecified other impacts suggest possibilities for privilege escalation or remote code execution. Attackers could exploit this vulnerability by simply enticing users to open a malicious .jb2 file, making the attack surface particularly broad and easy to exploit. The vulnerability demonstrates a classic buffer overflow or memory corruption pattern that could be leveraged in conjunction with other techniques to achieve more sophisticated attacks, potentially following the ATT&CK framework's initial access and execution phases where adversaries establish footholds through malicious file attachments.
Organizations should immediately implement mitigations including updating to the latest version of STDU Viewer where this vulnerability has been patched, implementing file extension filtering to prevent automatic execution of .jb2 files, and deploying application whitelisting policies to restrict execution of untrusted binaries. Network-based mitigations such as sandboxing document processing applications and implementing strict file validation procedures can also reduce the risk of exploitation. Additionally, security teams should monitor for indicators of compromise related to this vulnerability and ensure that all systems using STDU Viewer have appropriate patch management procedures in place. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper input validation and memory management in document processing applications, particularly those that handle specialized file formats that may contain complex data structures requiring careful parsing and validation to prevent exploitation.