CVE-2018-14282

This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of Foxit Reader 9.0.1.1049. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file. The specific flaw exists within the handling of FlateDecode streams. The issue results from the lack of proper initialization of a pointer prior to accessing it. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code under the context of the current process. Was ZDI-CAN-5763.

Weakness

The product does not initialize or incorrectly initializes a resource, which might leave the resource in an unexpected state when it is accessed or used.

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, in Java, if the programmer does not explicitly initialize a variable, then the code could produce a compile-time error (if the variable is local) or automatically initialize the variable to the default value for the variable’s type. In Perl, if explicit initialization is not performed, then a default value of undef is assigned, which is interpreted as 0, false, or an equivalent value depending on the context in which the variable is accessed.

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/26.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/29.html

References

• https://www.foxitsoftware.com/support/security-bulletins.php
• https://zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-18-742
• https://www.foxitsoftware.com/support/security-bulletins.php
• https://zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-18-742