iDefense Security Advisory 02.08.11: Adobe Reader and Acrobat JP2K Invalid Indexing Vulnerability

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iDefense Security Advisory 02.08.11
http://labs.idefense.com/intelligence/vulnerabilities/
Feb 08, 2011

I. BACKGROUND

Adobe Reader/Acrobat is a Portable Document Format Viewer (PDF). For
more information, see the vendor's site found at the following link.

http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/

II. DESCRIPTION

Remote exploitation of a memory corruption vulnerability in Adobe
Systems Inc.'s Reader could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code
with the privileges of the current user.

JPEG2000 (JP2K) is an image file format similar to JPEG. In addition to
JPEG markers, JP2K files also provide "boxes" that define different
image properties. JP2K is one of the image formats supported by Adobe
Reader and Acrobat.

The vulnerability occurs when parsing a JPEG2000 file embedded inside of
a PDF file. Several different JP2K record types are involved in the
vulnerability. It is possible to increment a buffer index beyond the
allocated data, and store pointers to file data at that location. This
can result in the corruption of heap structures and application data,
which leads to the execution of arbitrary code.

III. ANALYSIS

Exploitation of this vulnerability results in the execution of arbitrary
code with the privileges of the user viewing the web page or opening the
file. Since PDF files can be embedded into web pages and parsed without
interaction by default, this vulnerability can be exploited as a
typical browser vulnerability. To exploit this vulnerability, a
targeted user must load a malicious webpage created by an attacker. An
attacker typically accomplishes this via social engineering or
injecting content into compromised, trusted sites. After the user
visits the malicious web page, no further user interaction is needed.

IV. DETECTION

iDefense has confirmed the existence of this vulnerability in Adobe
Reader and Acrobat versions 9.4 and 8.2.5. A full list of vulnerable
Adobe products can be found in Adobe Security Bulletin APSB11-03.

V. WORKAROUND

Disabling the web view mode of Adobe Reader will prevent exploitation
through the browser.

VI. VENDOR RESPONSE

Adobe has addressed this issue with an update. Further details and
patches can be found at the following URL.

http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb11-03.html

VII. CVE INFORMATION

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned the
name CVE-2011-0602 to this issue. This is a candidate for inclusion in
the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org/), which standardizes names for
security problems.

VIII. DISCLOSURE TIMELINE

11/17/2010  Initial Vendor Notification
11/17/2010  Initial Vendor Reply
02/08/2011  Coordinated Public Disclosure

IX. CREDIT

This vulnerability was discovered by Sean Larsson, iDefense Labs.

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X. LEGAL NOTICES

Copyright © 2011 iDefense, Inc.

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Disclaimer: The information in the advisory is believed to be accurate
at the time of publishing based on currently available information. Use
of the information constitutes acceptance for use in an AS IS condition.
 There are no warranties with regard to this information. Neither the
author nor the publisher accepts any liability for any direct,
indirect, or consequential loss or damage arising from use of, or
reliance on, this information.