CVE-2019-8022 in Acrobat Reader
Summary
by MITRE
Adobe Acrobat and Reader versions, 2019.012.20035 and earlier, 2019.012.20035 and earlier, 2017.011.30142 and earlier, 2017.011.30143 and earlier, 2017.011.30142 and earlier, 2015.006.30497 and earlier, and 2015.006.30498 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 • 07/28/2020
Adobe Acrobat and Reader applications contain a critical out-of-bounds write vulnerability that affects multiple versions across different release cycles. This vulnerability resides in the handling of PDF documents and represents a serious security flaw that could be exploited by attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected systems. The vulnerability manifests when the software processes malformed PDF files that contain specially crafted data structures designed to trigger memory corruption during document parsing operations.
The technical nature of this vulnerability falls under CWE-787, which describes out-of-bounds write conditions where a program writes data past the end of a buffer or array. The flaw occurs in the PDF processing engine of Adobe Acrobat and Reader, specifically when parsing certain elements within PDF documents that contain insufficient bounds checking. Attackers can craft malicious PDF files that, when opened by an affected version of Adobe Reader or Acrobat, cause the application to write data beyond allocated memory boundaries, potentially leading to memory corruption and arbitrary code execution.
This vulnerability presents significant operational impact across enterprise environments where Adobe Reader is widely deployed for document viewing and sharing. The attack surface is extensive since PDF files are commonly shared via email, web downloads, and file transfer protocols, making exploitation relatively straightforward for threat actors. Successful exploitation could result in complete system compromise, allowing attackers to execute malicious code with the privileges of the user running the vulnerable application. The vulnerability affects both desktop and mobile versions of the software, increasing the potential attack vectors and making it particularly dangerous in corporate environments where document sharing is frequent.
Organizations should immediately implement mitigation strategies to protect against exploitation of this vulnerability. The primary recommendation is to update to the latest versions of Adobe Acrobat and Reader that contain patches for this specific flaw, with the most recent versions being 2019.012.20036 and later. System administrators should also consider implementing additional security measures such as sandboxing PDF viewers, restricting PDF file execution permissions, and deploying network-based intrusion detection systems to monitor for suspicious PDF-related network traffic. The vulnerability aligns with several ATT&CK techniques including initial access through malicious files and execution through legitimate system binaries, making layered defense strategies essential for comprehensive protection.