BlackBerry 10 Haunted by Adobe Flash Vulnerabilities
Posted on January 14, 2014 by Kara Dunlap in Security
BlackBerry today warned that its newest smartphones and tablets are at risk of remote code execution attacks via vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash Player.
According to a BlackBerry advisory, a malicious hacker could booby-trap Adobe Flash content and lure users into visiting rigged Web pages or downloading Adobe Air applications.
“If the requirements are met for exploitation, an attacker could potentially execute code with the rights of the application that opens the specially crafted malicious Flash content,” BlackBerry warned.
From the BlackBerry advisory:
Vulnerabilities exist in the Flash Player version supplied with affected versions of the BlackBerry 10 OS and PlayBook OS. The Flash Player is a cross-platform, browser-based application runtime.
Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could potentially result in an attacker executing code in the context of the application that opens the specially crafted Flash content (typically the web browser). Failed exploitation of this issue might result in abnormal or unexpected termination of the application.
In order to exploit these vulnerabilities, an attacker must craft Flash content in a stand-alone Flash (.swf) application or embed Flash content in a website. The attacker must then persuade the user to access the Flash content by clicking a link to the content in an email message or on a webpage, or loading it as part of an AIR application. The email message could be received at a webmail account that the user accesses in a browser on BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 smartphones and BlackBerry tablets.
Affected products include the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 smartphones and the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.
The company said it was not aware of any active exploitation of the Flash Player vulnerabilities.
Separately, Adobe shipped a cross-platform Flash Player update to fix at least four vulnerabilities that expose users to hacker attacks. Adobe said the vulnerabilities could be exploited to cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.
Ryan is the host of the podcast series “Security Conversations – a podcast with Ryan Naraine“. He is the head of Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research & Analysis team in the USA and has extensive experience in computer security user education, specializing in operating system and third-party application vulnerabilities, zero-day attacks, social engineering and social networking threats. Prior to joining Kaspersky Lab, he monitored security and hacker attack trends for over 10 years, writing for eWEEK magazine and the ZDNet Zero Day blog. Follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanaraine.
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