PDF exploited without vulnerability

[Anquilas]

A researcher (from Belgium! 😉 ) has found a way to exploit pdf files, without using a vulnerability. He created a pdf file with an embedded executable, which will start when the pdf file is opened.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=5929

Pretty cool it seems, as far as my knowledge about the subject goes 🙂

[Ketchup]

That’s a very cool exploit.  I can’t wait to see to the PDF language behind it.

[j0rDy]

Nice find! i like the part that Foxit Reader doesnt even give a warning! (it just executes the script without ant notification) A lot of people are switching to Foxit, so this proves that alternatives arent always better!

[Anquilas]

Idd 🙂 Now let’s hope that Adobe fixes it asap (for once)

[j0rDy]

just read that foxit will fix the problem first thing next week:

http://forums.foxitsoftware.com/showthread.php?p=41323

lets see how Adobe will do…

[UNIX]

Interesting, looking forward to more details on this.

[Jhaddix]

So, metaphish uses this functionality only with javascript. I believe Dave Kennedy will be implementing into SET (the Social Engineering Toolkit) soon =)

So many ways to trick the user =(

[j0rDy]

here is the link to his blog:

http://blog.didierstevens.com/2010/03/29/escape-from-pdf/

and here is a direct link to a zip file with the malicious file inside. dont worry, it will only spawn a command prompt. maybe you can do some reverse engineering on it?

http://didierstevens.com/files/data/launch-action-cmd.zip

Don: Can i post this or is it out of bounds?

[n1p]

@j0rDy wrote:

and here is a direct link to a zip file with the malicious file inside. dont worry, it will only spawn a command prompt. maybe you can do some reverse engineering on it?

Guys, since I had some spare time :), just a small write-up on this to demonstrate how it occurs in the PDF. Thought you all might be interested.

http://www.isolatedthreat.com/?p=214

As usual comments welcome.

n1p

[Ketchup]

The cool thing about this one is that it doesn’t rely on JavaScript being enabled in Adobe.  It must be using the built in language. 

Nice write-up btw n1p.

[n1p]

Yes, it is using the PDF language spec, but not in the way they intended 😛

Malware uses a variety of techniques to embed in a PDF, so I will be interested to see how he has done it… And how vendors respond

[Jhaddix]

Testing a /dev/tcp version atm that will send goodness over the wire in *nix =)

[Author]

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