CVE-2018-12770 in Acrobat Reader
Summary
by MITRE
Adobe Acrobat and Reader 2018.011.20040 and earlier, 2017.011.30080 and earlier, and 2015.006.30418 and earlier versions have a Use-after-free vulnerability. Successful exploitation could lead to arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/09/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-12770 represents a critical use-after-free flaw affecting multiple versions of Adobe Acrobat and Reader software. This security weakness stems from improper memory management practices within the affected applications, specifically in how they handle memory allocation and deallocation during document processing operations. The vulnerability manifests when the software attempts to access memory locations that have already been freed, creating opportunities for malicious actors to exploit this condition for unauthorized code execution.
The technical nature of this vulnerability places it squarely within the scope of CWE-416, which categorizes use-after-free conditions as a fundamental memory safety issue. When processing maliciously crafted PDF documents, the affected Adobe applications fail to properly validate memory references, allowing attackers to manipulate the application's memory state. This particular flaw affects versions including 2018.011.20040 and earlier, 2017.011.30080 and earlier, and 2015.006.30418 and earlier, indicating a widespread impact across multiple release cycles of the software suite. The exploitation mechanism typically involves crafting a specially designed PDF file that triggers the memory corruption when opened or processed by the vulnerable application.
From an operational perspective, successful exploitation of CVE-2018-12770 enables attackers to achieve arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the currently logged-in user. This represents a severe privilege escalation risk that aligns with ATT&CK technique T1068, which covers 'Local Privilege Escalation' through the exploitation of software vulnerabilities. The attack surface is particularly concerning given that Adobe Acrobat and Reader remain widely deployed across enterprise environments, making this vulnerability an attractive target for adversaries seeking persistent access to sensitive systems. The impact extends beyond simple code execution as it can potentially lead to full system compromise, data exfiltration, and lateral movement within network environments.
Organizations should prioritize immediate remediation through official Adobe security patches, which address the underlying memory management issues in the affected software versions. The mitigation strategy should include comprehensive vulnerability assessments to identify all instances of the vulnerable software across the enterprise infrastructure. Additionally, network segmentation and application whitelisting policies can provide additional defensive layers to limit the potential impact of successful exploitation attempts. Security teams should also implement monitoring solutions to detect suspicious PDF file handling activities and establish incident response procedures specifically tailored to address use-after-free vulnerabilities in document processing applications. The remediation process must account for the extensive deployment of Adobe Reader across various operating systems and device types to ensure complete coverage of the identified risk.