Fortinet Discovers Adobe Flash Player PCRE Handling Heap Overflow Vulnerability

Summary

Adobe Flash Player is a lightweight freeware and rich Internet application that delivers consistent and engaging user experiences, stunning audio/video playback, and exciting gameplay. Its plug-in version is available for every major web browser. Google Chrome comes bundled with the sandboxed Adobe Flash Player plug-in.
Adobe Flash Player parses and runs SWF files. It supports vector and raster graphics, 3D graphics, an embedded scripting language called ActionScript, and streaming of video and audio. According to Adobe's statistics, Flash Player has been installed on more than 1.3 billion systems. It has already become the standard for delivering high-impact, rich Web content.
A heap overflow vulnerability has been discovered in Adobe Flash Player. This vulnerability is caused due to a failure to execute a string match after a specifically crafted regular expression used in ActionScript code is compiled. It could lead to arbitrary code execution.

Solutions

FortiGuard Labs released the following FortiGate IPS signature which covers this specific vulnerability:

Adobe.Flash.ActionScript.Regexp.Heap.Overflow
Released Aug 12, 2015
Users should apply the solution provided by Adobe Software.

Acknowledgement

This vulnerability was discovered by Kai Lu of Fortinet's FortiGuard Labs.

References

• https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb15-19.html
• CVE-2015-5129

IPS Subscription

Fortinet customers who subscribe to Fortinet's intrusion prevention (IPS) service should be protected against this vulnerability with the appropriate configuration parameters in place. Fortinet's IPS service is one component of FortiGuard Subscription Services, which also offer comprehensive solutions such as antivirus, Web content filtering and antispam capabilities. These services enable protection against threats on both application and network layers. FortiGuard Services are continuously updated by FortiGuard Labs, which enables Fortinet to deliver a combination of multi-layered security intelligence and true zero-day protection from new and emerging threats. These updates are delivered to all FortiGate, FortiMail and FortiClient products. Fortinet strictly follows responsible disclosure guidelines to ensure optimum protection during a threat's lifecycle.