08 january, 2007
US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU#815960Adobe Acrobat Plug-In cross domain violation
Overview
The Adobe Acrobat Plug-In fails to properly validate user-supplied
content, which may allow for cross-site scripting.
I. Description
Adobe Acrobat Reader is software designed to view Portable Document
Format (PDF) files. Adobe also distributes the Adobe Acrobat Plug-In
to allow users to view PDF files inside of a web browser.
The Adobe Acrobat Plug-In PDF Open Parameters feature allows users
to specify actions to take on a PDF document via URI parameters.
However, the Adobe Acrobat Plug-In fails to properly validate these
URI parameters for scripting code. This allows user-supplied scripts
to execute within the context of the web site hosting the PDF file
causing a cross-site scripting vulnerability. More information about
cross-site scripting is available in CERT Advisory CA-2000-02.
http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2000-02.html
Note that any website that hosts a PDF file may be leveraged to exploit
this vulnerability.
II. Impact
An attacker may be able to obtain sensitive data from a user that
visits a web site hosting a PDF document. Depending on the nature of
the web site, this data may include passwords, credit card numbers,
and any arbitrary information provided by the user. Likewise,
information stored in cookies could be stolen or corrupted.
III. Solution
Upgrade
According to public reports, this vulnerability is addressed in Adobe
Acrobat Reader 8.0. Limited testing seems to confirm these reports.
Until it is possible to upgrade to a fixed version of the Adobe Acrobat
Plug-In, the following workarounds will mitigate this vulnerability
Disable displaying PDF documents in the web browser
To prevent PDF documents from automatically being opened in a web
browser:
1. Open Adobe Acrobat Reader
2. Open the Edit menu
3. Choose the preferences option
4. Un-check the "Display PDF in browser" check box
Disable JavaScript
For instructions on how to disable JavaScript, please refer to the
Securing Your Web Browser document.
http://www.us-cert.gov/reading_room/securing_browser/
Systems Affected
Vendor Status Date Updated
Adobe Vulnerable 3-Jan-2007
References
http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2000-02.html
http://events.ccc.de/congress/2006/Fahrplan/attachments/1158-Subverting_Ajax.pdf
http://www.wisec.it/vulns.php?page=9
http://secunia.com/advisories/23483/
Credit
This vulnerability was discovered and reported by Stefano Di Paola
and Giorgio Fedon.
This document was written by Ryan Giobbi and Jeff Gennari.
Other Information
Date Public 01/03/2007
Date First Published 01/03/2007 03:59:45 PM
Date Last Updated 01/03/2007
CERT Advisory
CVE Name
Metric 16.87
Document Revision 28