Advisory Details

March 22nd, 2016

Apple OS X PDF Parsing Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

ZDI-16-201
ZDI-CAN-3460

CVE ID CVE-2016-1740
CVSS SCORE 6.8, AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
AFFECTED VENDORS Apple
AFFECTED PRODUCTS OS X
VULNERABILITY DETAILS


This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of Apple OS X. 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 PDF files. The issue lies in the parsing of encoded fonts containing invalid characters. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code under the context of the current process.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS Apple has issued an update to correct this vulnerability. More details can be found at:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206167
DISCLOSURE TIMELINE
  • 2015-12-17 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
  • 2016-03-22 - Coordinated public release of advisory
CREDIT HappilyCoded (ant4g0nist & r3dsm0k3)
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