CVE-2016-4181

Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.366 and 19.x through 22.x before 22.0.0.209 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.632 on Linux allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-4172, CVE-2016-4175, CVE-2016-4179, CVE-2016-4180, CVE-2016-4182, CVE-2016-4183, CVE-2016-4184, CVE-2016-4185, CVE-2016-4186, CVE-2016-4187, CVE-2016-4188, CVE-2016-4189, CVE-2016-4190, CVE-2016-4217, CVE-2016-4218, CVE-2016-4219, CVE-2016-4220, CVE-2016-4221, CVE-2016-4233, CVE-2016-4234, CVE-2016-4235, CVE-2016-4236, CVE-2016-4237, CVE-2016-4238, CVE-2016-4239, CVE-2016-4240, CVE-2016-4241, CVE-2016-4242, CVE-2016-4243, CVE-2016-4244, CVE-2016-4245, and CVE-2016-4246.

Weakness

The product writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

• Use a language that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.

• For example, many languages that perform their own memory management, such as Java and Perl, are not subject to buffer overflows. Other languages, such as Ada and C#, typically provide overflow protection, but the protection can be disabled by the programmer.

• Be wary that a language’s interface to native code may still be subject to overflows, even if the language itself is theoretically safe.

• Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.

• Examples include the Safe C String Library (SafeStr) by Messier and Viega [REF-57], and the Strsafe.h library from Microsoft [REF-56]. These libraries provide safer versions of overflow-prone string-handling functions.

• Use automatic buffer overflow detection mechanisms that are offered by certain compilers or compiler extensions. Examples include: the Microsoft Visual Studio /GS flag, Fedora/Red Hat FORTIFY_SOURCE GCC flag, StackGuard, and ProPolice, which provide various mechanisms including canary-based detection and range/index checking.

• D3-SFCV (Stack Frame Canary Validation) from D3FEND [REF-1334] discusses canary-based detection in detail.

• Consider adhering to the following rules when allocating and managing an application’s memory:

• Run or compile the software using features or extensions that randomly arrange the positions of a program’s executable and libraries in memory. Because this makes the addresses unpredictable, it can prevent an attacker from reliably jumping to exploitable code.

• Examples include Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) [REF-58] [REF-60] and Position-Independent Executables (PIE) [REF-64]. Imported modules may be similarly realigned if their default memory addresses conflict with other modules, in a process known as “rebasing” (for Windows) and “prelinking” (for Linux) [REF-1332] using randomly generated addresses. ASLR for libraries cannot be used in conjunction with prelink since it would require relocating the libraries at run-time, defeating the whole purpose of prelinking.

• For more information on these techniques see D3-SAOR (Segment Address Offset Randomization) from D3FEND [REF-1335].

• Use a CPU and operating system that offers Data Execution Protection (using hardware NX or XD bits) or the equivalent techniques that simulate this feature in software, such as PaX [REF-60] [REF-61]. These techniques ensure that any instruction executed is exclusively at a memory address that is part of the code segment.

• For more information on these techniques see D3-PSEP (Process Segment Execution Prevention) from D3FEND [REF-1336].

References

• http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2016-07/msg00016.html
• http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2016-07/msg00017.html
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/91725
• http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036280
• https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016:1423
• https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb16-25.html