CVE-2018-12759 in Acrobat Reader
Summary
by MITRE
Adobe Acrobat and Reader versions 2018.011.20063 and earlier, 2017.011.30102 and earlier, and 2015.006.30452 and earlier have an out-of-bounds write vulnerability. Successful exploitation could lead to arbitrary code execution.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/06/2024
Adobe Acrobat and Reader applications contain a critical out-of-bounds write vulnerability that affects multiple version ranges including 2018.011.20063 and earlier, 2017.011.30102 and earlier, and 2015.006.30452 and earlier. This vulnerability resides in the handling of malformed PDF files and represents a classic buffer overflow condition where an attacker can write data beyond the allocated memory boundaries. The flaw occurs when the software processes specially crafted PDF documents that contain malformed data structures, particularly in the way the application manages memory allocation for certain objects within the document parsing process.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability leverages the principle of memory corruption to achieve arbitrary code execution within the context of the running Acrobat or Reader process. When a user opens a maliciously crafted PDF file, the application's parser fails to properly validate input data before writing to memory locations, allowing an attacker to overwrite adjacent memory regions with malicious code. This type of vulnerability falls under CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write which is classified as a high-severity issue in the Common Weakness Enumeration catalog. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it can be triggered through simple user interaction, requiring no special privileges or complex attack vectors.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents a significant risk to organizations relying on Adobe Acrobat and Reader for document processing and viewing. The attack surface is extensive since these applications are widely deployed across enterprise environments and are frequently used to open documents from untrusted sources. Successful exploitation could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the application, potentially leading to full system compromise. The vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution which describes how adversaries can leverage software vulnerabilities to execute malicious code on target systems.
Organizations should immediately apply the vendor-provided security patches to address this vulnerability and update all affected versions of Adobe Acrobat and Reader. System administrators should implement additional protective measures such as restricting PDF file handling through email gateways and web browsers, implementing application whitelisting policies, and monitoring for suspicious file execution patterns. The remediation process should include comprehensive testing of the updated software to ensure that the patch does not introduce compatibility issues with existing workflows while maintaining the security posture against this and related vulnerabilities.