CVE-2017-2941 in Acrobat Reader
Summary
by MITRE
Adobe Acrobat Reader versions 15.020.20042 and earlier, 15.006.30244 and earlier, 11.0.18 and earlier have an exploitable memory corruption vulnerability when processing Compact Font Format data. Successful exploitation could lead to arbitrary code execution.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/28/2022
Adobe Acrobat Reader contains a critical memory corruption vulnerability in its handling of Compact Font Format data structures that affects multiple version ranges including 15.020.20042 and earlier, 15.006.30244 and earlier, and 11.0.18 and earlier. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-125 vulnerability category, which describes out-of-bounds read conditions that can occur when processing malformed data structures. The flaw manifests during the parsing of Compact Font Format font data within the application's font rendering engine, where insufficient bounds checking allows attackers to craft malicious font files that trigger memory corruption when the software attempts to process them. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it can be exploited through social engineering techniques where users unknowingly open malicious PDF documents containing crafted Compact Font Format data. When exploited, this vulnerability enables attackers to achieve arbitrary code execution within the context of the Acrobat Reader application, which represents a significant privilege escalation risk given that PDF readers typically run with user-level permissions. The attack vector requires the victim to open a specially crafted PDF document that contains malicious Compact Font Format data, making this a client-side exploitation target that aligns with ATT&CK technique T1203 for exploitation for execution. The memory corruption occurs due to improper validation of font data structure boundaries during parsing operations, allowing attackers to overwrite adjacent memory locations with controlled data. This type of vulnerability is classified as a heap-based buffer overflow in the context of memory safety issues and represents a common attack surface for privilege escalation in document processing applications. The vulnerability's exploitability is enhanced by the widespread use of Adobe Acrobat Reader across enterprise and consumer environments, making it an attractive target for attackers seeking persistent access to systems. Organizations using affected versions of Adobe Acrobat Reader should immediately implement patch management procedures to upgrade to versions that contain fixed font parsing logic. The recommended mitigation strategy involves not only applying the vendor-provided security patches but also implementing network-based controls such as PDF file content filtering and user education to reduce the risk of exploitation. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing application whitelisting policies that restrict execution of Adobe Acrobat Reader to trusted environments and disable unnecessary font processing features that could be leveraged for exploitation. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of proper input validation in font rendering engines and highlights the need for comprehensive security testing of document processing applications against malformed data inputs.