14 DAY TRIAL // A security and stability update has been released for Adobe Illustrator CS5, fixing a DLL preloading vulnerability which could be exploited to execute arbitrary code.
Also known as DLL hijacking, binary planting or DLL side loading, this type of vulnerability stems from the use of an insecure search path by some library loading functions.
When a DLL is called by a program without specifying its full path, the operating system automatically searches for it in a series of predefined places in order.
The DLL call usually happens when a particular action is performed in the program, such as opening a certain file, and in many cases, the working directory takes precedence in the search path.
This type of weakness began being publicly discussed a few months back and hundreds of applications, including some of the most popular ones, were deemed vulnerable.
Some of them called a Vista or 7-only DLL when running on Windows XP, which allowed for a rogue file with the same name to be placed in the working dir and get executed.
Since files can be loaded directly from network shares or WebDAV resources, this arbitrary code execution condition also has a remote attack vector.
The vulnerability in Adobe Illustrator CS5 is identified as CVE-2010-3152 and Adobe rates it as “important.” Users of Illustrator CS 15.0.1 or earlier are strongly advised to install the 15.0.2 update as soon as possible.
In addition to the security content, this update contains a series of other bug fixes as well. These are as follows:
- PSD files lose saturation of spot colors when imported into AiCS5 - Performance problems when guides are set to dot - Acrobat 10 documents with passwords fail to open - Improved precision with DXF import - Links are broken in legacy formats when image name contains Japanese characters for voiced sound marks - Rounded Corner Edges that curved inside flipped to curve outside - Non-Specific Crash when opening or closing files
Adobe Illustrator CS5 15.0.2 update can be downloaded from here.