Multiple vulnerabilities in Macromedia Flash ActiveX
by Dalibor Glavan on November 18, 2002
Macromedia flash ActiveX plugin displays .swf files under Internet Explorer. Quoting www.macromedia.com: "Over 97.8% of all web users have the Macromedia Flash Player".
Few vulnerabilities were identified: protected memory reading, memory
consumption DoS and more serious:
1. zlib 1.1.3 double free() bug
2. Buffer overflow in SWRemote parameter for flash object.
Details:
Last bug is very close to one reported by eEye in May [2]. Probably it
was not found by eEye because overflow is heap based, so exception is
triggered on free(). It may be achieved by setting and changing property
with Javascript, for example. This kind of overflows (heap based Unicode
overflow) is exploitable under Internet Explorer. Attached proof of
concept (by LOM)[1] demonstrates exception triggered in free(). See [3]
for exploiting heap overflows, [4] for exploiting Unicode overflows
under Internet Explorer.
Credits:
Vulnerabilities were discovered by LOM <lom at lom.spb.ru>
Vendor:
Macromedia was contacted on 23 Oct 2002. The only reply was received on
29 Oct 2002 that Macromedia will look into these issues.
Workaround:
Disable ActiveX in Internet Explorer or uninstall flash ActiveX.
References:
1. Macromedia Shockwave proof of concept
http://www.security.nnov.ru/files/swfexpl.zip
2. eEye, Macromedia Flash Activex Buffer overflow
http://www.eeye.com/html/Research/Advisories/AD20020502.html
3. w00w00 on Heap Overflows
http://www.w00w00.org/files/articles/heaptut.txt
4. 3APA3A, Details and exploitation of buffer overflow in mshtml.dll (and
few sidenotes on Unicode overflows in general)
http://www.security.nnov.ru/search/document.asp?docid=2554
5. Additional or updated information on this issue
http://www.security.nnov.ru/search/news.asp?binid=1982
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