Researchers at Core Security have released details of unpatched vulnerabilities impacting a slew of products from Corel Software.
According to Core Security, the DLL hijacking vulnerabilities resides in: Corel DRAW, Corel Photo Paint X7, Corel PaintShop Pro X7, Corel CAD 2014, Corel Painter 2015, Corel PDF Fusion, Corel VideoStudio Pro X7 and Corel Fast Flick.
“When a file associated with the Corel software is opened, the directory of that document is first used to locate DLLs, which could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary commands by inserting malicious DLLs into the same directory as the document,” Core explained in an advisory.
If exploited successfully, the vulnerabilities could be used by attackers to execute code.
According to Core Security, the firm attempted to notify Corel Software of the vulnerabilities in December, and decided to publish the advisory after not receiving any acknowledgement from the vendor.
“Users can determine if they are potentially vulnerable only by checking if they have installed the affected software,” noted Joaquin Rodriguez Varela, senior security researcher at Core Security. “Taking into account that this is a user release, this vulnerability affects the latest versions of the product and there is no fix available. We recommend vulnerable users refrain from opening suspicious files whose extensions are associated with any of these applications, and if they must, ensure that there aren’t any of the DLL files (hidden as well) listed in the advisory in the same folder.”
In a statement to SecurityWeek, Corel Software said it is reviewing its products “on a case-by-case basis to safeguard dynamic loading of DLL files, which is a common vulnerability in many Windows applications.”
“Corel makes frequent updates to our applications and these changes have been made a priority for the next update of any affected Corel product,” the company said. “We would like to assure our users that we are not aware of any exploits of this issue with our software. Corel would like to remind all of its customers to follow safe internet practices and not open attachments, click on external links, download files, or visit an untrusted remote file system from any source they do not know and trust explicitly. Moreover, it is also a best practice to ensure that your system is running up-to-date anti-virus, firewall and malware protection software.”
*This story was updated to add commentary from Corel Software.