Attacker Value
Unknown
(1 user assessed)
Exploitability
Unknown
(1 user assessed)
User Interaction
Unknown
Privileges Required
Unknown
Attack Vector
Unknown
0

Adobe Flash ByteArray Use-After-Free

Disclosure Date: July 08, 2015 Last updated February 13, 2020
Add MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques that apply to this CVE.

Description

Use-after-free vulnerability in the ByteArray class in the ActionScript 3 (AS3) implementation in Adobe Flash Player 13.x through 13.0.0.296 and 14.x through 18.0.0.194 on Windows and OS X and 11.x through 11.2.202.468 on Linux allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via crafted Flash content that overrides a valueOf function, as exploited in the wild in July 2015.

Add Assessment

1
Technical Analysis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Flash_Player

Congrats! You are reading about the most beautiful Flash bug for the last four
years since CVE-2010-2161.

The use-after-free vulnerability exists inside the built-in ByteArray class
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/flash/utils/ByteArray.html

Let’s create a simple ByteArray object:

var ba:ByteArray = new ByteArray();
ba.length = 8;
ba[1] = 1;

Now we can access ba[] items and write numeric byte values into ba[].
Also we are allowed to write objects into ByteArray. For example:

var obj = new MyClass();
ba[0] = obj;

AS3 will try to implicitly convert the MyClass object into numeric value by
calling the MyClass.valueOf() method. This method can be easily redefined
within the user’s code:

class MyClass
{
    prototype.valueOf = function()
    {
        ba.length = 88; // reallocate ba[] storage
        return 0;       // return byte for ba[offset]
    }
}

Let’s see how that implicit conversion occurs inside the native code:

push esi
mov  eax, [esp+8]                // the offset value from "ba[offset] = obj"
push eax
add  ecx, 0x18                   // ecx = this = "ba" object pointer
call ByteArray.getStorage()      // gets ba[offset] storage pointer and
mov  esi, eax                    // saves it in esi

mov  ecx, [esp+0xC]              // "obj" pointer
push ecx
call AvmCore.toInteger()         // call MyClass.valueOf()
add  esp,4
mov  [esi], al                   // writes returned byte into array

pop  esi
ret  8

On high-level language this will look like:

void ByteArray.setObjInternal(int offset, obj)
{
    byte* dest = this.getStorage(offset);
    dest* = toInteger(obj);
}

So the array storage pointer is saved in local variable, then AS3 valueOf() is
invoked from the native code and returned byte is written into destination
pointer at the end. If valueOf() changes the length of byte array (see above)
and reallocates its internal storage, then local destination pointer becomes
obsolete and further usage of that pointer can lead to UaF memory corruption.

Using this vulnerability, it’s very easy to control what byte will be written
and at which offset this corruption will occur.

  1. AFFECTED SOFTWARE
    Adobe Flash Player 9 and higher

  2. TESTING
    Open the test “calc.htm” file in your browser and press the button.

on Windows:
Calc.exe should be popped on desktop IE.
Calc.exe should be run as a non-GUI child process in metro IE.
Payload returns 0 from CreateProcessA(“calc.exe”) inside Chrome/FF sandbox.

on OS X:
Calculator is launched in FF or standalone Flash Player projector.
Payload returns 1 from vfork() in Safari sandbox.

General Information

Additional Info

Technical Analysis