Vulnerability Note VU#451380

Adobe Flash Player long string buffer overflow

Overview

Adobe Flash Player fails to properly handle malformed strings. This vulnerability may allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code.

I. Description

Adobe Flash Player is a player for the Flash media format and enables frame-based animations with sound to be viewed within a web browser. Adobe Flash Player fails to properly handle long dynamic strings, which allows a buffer overflow to occur. The specific cause of the underlying defect or the malformed strings that could exploit this vulnerability is not known.

Note that Microsoft has released Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-069 to address this issue.

II. Impact

A remote, unauthenticated attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code. Note that an attacker may be able to exploit this vulnerability by convincing a user to access a specially crafted web page.

III. Solution

Upgrade Flash Player

Adobe has addressed this issue in Adobe Flash Player 9.0.16.0.

Apply updates

Users who are unable to upgrade to Adobe Flash Player 9.0.16.0 should apply the appropriate player update listed in Adobe Security Bulletin APSB06-11. Users running operating systems that do not support Adobe Flash Player 8 should refer to the updates in Adobe's Flash Player TechNote. Microsoft has addressed this issue in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-069.

Workarounds

Microsoft has suggested the following workarounds. Please see Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-069 for further information.

Temporarily prevent the Flash Player ActiveX control from running in Internet Explorer for Windows XP Service Pack 2.
Temporarily prevent the Flash Player ActiveX control from running in Internet Explorer.
Modify the access control list on the Flash Player ActiveX control to temporarily prevent it from running in Internet Explorer.
Un-register the Flash Player ActiveX control.
Restrict access to the Macromedia Flash folder by using a software restriction policy.
Change your Internet Explorer settings to prompt you before running ActiveX controls or disable ActiveX controls in the Internet security zone and in the local intranet security zone.
Set Internet and local intranet security zone settings to “High” to prompt you before running ActiveX controls in these zones.
Remove the Flash Player from your system.

Systems Affected

Vendor	Status	Date Notified
Adobe	Vulnerable	18-Sep-2006
Apple Computer, Inc.	Vulnerable	3-Oct-2006
Microsoft Corporation	Vulnerable	14-Nov-2006

References

http://secunia.com/advisories/21865/
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=d9c2fe33
http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb06-11.html
http://www.computerterrorism.com/research/ct12-09-2006.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/925143.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms06-069.mspx

Credit

This vulnerability was reported by Stuart Pearson of Computer Terrorism (UK) Ltd.

This document was written by Jeff Gennari.

Other Information

Date Public:	2006-09-12
Date First Published:	2006-10-04
Date Last Updated:	2007-07-11
CERT Advisory:
CVE-ID(s):	CVE-2006-3311
NVD-ID(s):	CVE-2006-3311
US-CERT Technical Alerts:
Metric:	33.41
Document Revision:	35

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Produced 2006 by US-CERT, a government organization
Disclaimers and copyright information

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