Severity: High

5 November, 2009

Summary:

§ This vulnerability affects: Adobe Shockwave Player 11.5.1.601 and earlier, running on Windows and Macintosh computers

§ How an attacker exploits it: By enticing your users to visit a website containing a malicious Flash file

§ Impact: An attacker can execute code on your computer, potentially gaining control of it

§ What to do: Download and install the latest version of Adobe Shockwave Player

Exposure:

Adobe Shockwave Player displays interactive, animated web content called Shockwave (.SWF) files. According to Adobe, Shockwave Player is installed on some 450 million PCs.

In a security bulletin released late Tuesday, Adobe warned of critical vulnerabilities that affect Adobe Shockwave Player 11.5.1.601 for Windows and Macintosh (as well as all earlier versions). Adobe’s bulletin refers to five CVE numbers, which suggests that their update fixes five security vulnerabilities. The bulletin doesn’t describe the flaws in much technical detail. However, it does warn that if an attacker can entice one of your users to visit a malicious website containing specially crafted Shockwave (SWF) content, he could exploit this unspecified vulnerability to execute code on that user’s computer, with that user’s privileges. If your Windows users have local administrator privileges, an attacker could exploit this flaw to gain full control of their PC.

If you deploy Adobe Shockwave throughout your network, we recommend you download and install the latest version as soon as you can.

Solution Path

Adobe has released a new version of Shockwave Player, version 11.5.2.602. If you use Adobe Flash in your network, we recommend you download and deploy this updated player as soon as possible.

Status:

Adobe has released a Shockwave Player update to fix these vulnerabilities.

References:

§ Adobe Security Bulletin

This alert was researched and written by Corey Nachreiner, CISSP.