Adobe Flash Zero-Day

A zero-day vulnerability affecting Adobe Flash, labeled as CVE-2018-4878, was publicly disclosed on January 31^st. If successfully exploited, the vulnerability allows for remote code execution. Adobe stated that a security patch will be made available on February 5, 2018. Attacks exploiting this vulnerability have been seen in the wild, targeting specific individuals in South Korea with specially crafted phishing emails. It is probable that other threat actors will attempt to incorporate this vulnerability into their attacks. Due to the complexity and lack of available technical details, rapid adaption of CVE-2018-4878 is unlikely. This vulnerability garners special focus as it has been publicly disclosed and actively exploited prior to patching.

What we’re doing about

The eSentire Threat Intelligence team is actively monitoring the situation for changes.

What you should do about it

• Enable the Protected View setting for Microsoft Office devices.
• After patch release and performing a business impact review, apply the Adobe security patch.

Additional information

To exploit this vulnerability, attackers embed malicious SWF files into Excel and Word documents which can be delivered through conventional malware delivery tactics such as phishing or malicious webpages. Further technical details are not available at this time.

Affected Products

• Adobe Flash Player Desktop Runtime – versions 28.0.0.137 and earlier
• Adobe Flash Player for Google Chrome – versions 28.0.0.137 and earlier
• Adobe Flash Player for Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer 11 – versions 28.0.0.137 and earlier
• Adobe Flash Player Desktop Runtime – versions 28.0.0.137 and earlier