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Domain: didierstevens.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to didierstevens.com.
Stories · 4
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Adobe Fixes Recent PDF Flaw, But Not Before Auto Exploit
SkiifGeek writes "With Adobe's patch for the JBIG2Decode vulnerability due in a few days time, new methods to target the vulnerability have been discovered that make it far riskier than previously thought. Didier Stevens recently showed the world how it is possible to exploit the vulnerability without the user actually opening an affected file, and now he has discovered a way that allows for completely automated exploitation that results in anything up to a Local System account without any user interaction at all and only relies upon basic Windows components and Acrobat Reader elements. There are some mitigating factors that limit the overall risk of this new discovery, but it does also highlight that merely uninstalling the Reader will not protect you from exploitation and does raise the possibility that other tools will access the vulnerable components and thus be vectors for attack." However, the fix is now in: nk497 writes "Adobe had finally released a fix for a PDF vulnerability discovered — and already exploited — last month. The update only applies to the most recent versions of Reader and Acrobat, with early versions and Unix editions not fixed until later this month. Adobe has taken its time with the patch, despite an independent security researcher releasing her own fix just days after the flaw was announced." -
Adobe Fixes Recent PDF Flaw, But Not Before Auto Exploit
SkiifGeek writes "With Adobe's patch for the JBIG2Decode vulnerability due in a few days time, new methods to target the vulnerability have been discovered that make it far riskier than previously thought. Didier Stevens recently showed the world how it is possible to exploit the vulnerability without the user actually opening an affected file, and now he has discovered a way that allows for completely automated exploitation that results in anything up to a Local System account without any user interaction at all and only relies upon basic Windows components and Acrobat Reader elements. There are some mitigating factors that limit the overall risk of this new discovery, but it does also highlight that merely uninstalling the Reader will not protect you from exploitation and does raise the possibility that other tools will access the vulnerable components and thus be vectors for attack." However, the fix is now in: nk497 writes "Adobe had finally released a fix for a PDF vulnerability discovered — and already exploited — last month. The update only applies to the most recent versions of Reader and Acrobat, with early versions and Unix editions not fixed until later this month. Adobe has taken its time with the patch, despite an independent security researcher releasing her own fix just days after the flaw was announced." -
PDF Vulnerability Now Exploitable With No Clicking
SkiifGeek writes "With Adobe's patch for the current PDF vulnerability still some time away, news has emerged of more techniques that are available to exploit the vulnerability, this time without needing the victim to actually open a malicious file. Instead, the methods make use of a Windows Explorer Shell Extension that is installed alongside Adobe Reader, and which will trigger the exploitable code when the file is interacted with in Windows Explorer. Methods have been demonstrated of successful exploitation with a single click, with thumbnail view, and with merely hovering the mouse cursor over the affected file. There are many ways that exploits targeting the JBIG2 vulnerability could be hidden inside a PDF file, and it seems that the reliability of detection for these varying methods is spotty, at best." -
AntiVirus Products Fail to Find Simple IE Malware
SkiifGeek writes "Didier Stevens recently took a closer look at some Internet Explorer malware that he had uncovered and found that most antivirus products that it was tested against failed to identify the malware through one of the most basic and straight forward obfuscation techniques — the null-byte. With enough null-bytes between each character of code, it is possible to fool all antivirus products (though additional software will trap it), yet Internet Explorer was quite happy to render the code. Whose responsibility is it to fix this behavior? Both the antivirus / anti-malware companies and Microsoft's IE team have something to answer for."