Adobe Patches Critical Vulnerabilities in Flash, Acrobat, Reader

Adobe today released security updates for Flash Player, Acrobat, Reader, and XMP Toolkit for Java, to address multiple Critical vulnerabilities affecting Windows, Mac OS X, ChromeOS, and Linux users.

A total of 52 security bugs were resolved in Flash Player this month, including vulnerabilities that are being targeted or have a higher risk of being targeted, by exploits in the wild. Adobe Flash Player 22.0.0.209 and Flash Player Extended Support Release 18.0.0.366 for Windows and Mac, Adobe Flash Player for Linux 11.2.202.632 resolve these issues.

The vulnerabilities are also resolved in version 22.0.0.209 of Adobe Flash Player for Google Chrome for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and ChromeOS and of Adobe Flash Player for Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 10 and 8.1.

The update fixes type confusion flaws (CVE-2016-4223, CVE-2016-4224, CVE-2016-4225), use-after-free bugs (CVE-2016-4173, CVE-2016-4174, CVE-2016-4222, CVE-2016-4226, CVE-2016-4227, CVE-2016-4228, CVE-2016-4229, CVE-2016-4230, CVE-2016-4231, CVE-2016-4248), a heap buffer overflow vulnerability (CVE-2016-4249), stack corruption issues (CVE-2016-4176, CVE-2016-4177), and 33 memory corruption vulnerabilities that could lead to code execution.

Additionally, Adobe patched a race condition vulnerability that could lead to information disclosure (CVE-2016-4247), a memory leak vulnerability (CVE-2016-4232), and a security bypass vulnerability that could lead to information disclosure (CVE-2016-4178) in Flash Player. Users are advised to update the runtime via the official channels to stay protected.

A total of 30 security flaws were resolved in Acrobat and Reader for Windows and Mac OS X, most of which could result in code execution and could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system, Adobe’s advisory reads. The new patches are available for both the Continuous and Classic tracks, as well as for Acrobat XI and Reader XI releases.

The resolved vulnerabilities include an integer overflow issue (CVE-2016-4210), a use-after-free vulnerability (CVE-2016-4190), and a heap buffer overflow bug (CVE-2016-4209), as well as 26 memory corruption vulnerabilities. Additionally, the security patches address various methods to bypass restrictions on Javascript API execution (CVE-2016-4215).

Acrobat DC and Acrobat Reader DC version 15.017.20050 (Continuous track) and 15.006.30198 (Classic track) and Acrobat XI and Reader XI version 11.0.17 (Desktop track) resolve the aforementioned issues. Although there are currently no known exploits for these flaws, users are advised to update their software as soon as possible to stay protected.

The security update released for Adobe XMP Toolkit for Java resolves an important vulnerability associated with the parsing of crafted XML external entities in XMPCore that could lead to information disclosure (CVE-2016-4216). Discovered by Tim Allison of the MITRE corporation, the flaw was resolved in version 5.1.3 of the product, Adobe says.

Last month, Adobe patched a Flash Player zero-day vulnerability exploited by a relatively new advanced persistent threat (APT) group dubbed “ScarCruft” in attacks aimed at high-profile targets. Tracked as CVE-2016-4171, the bug had been exploited in targeted attacks in a campaign dubbed by experts “Operation Daybreak.”