Palo Alto Networks Threat Researchers Identify Two More Flash Vulnerabilities

You may recall that the Palo Alto Networks Threat Research team uncovered a critical Microsoft vulnerability that allowed host machines to be compromised simply by visiting a Web page.

Well, they’ve done it again. Our threat research team, one of the most active in the industry, has uncovered two critical Adobe Flash vulnerabilities (CVE-2011-2414 and CVE-2011-2415) which were patched this week. Both of these vulnerabilities are related to buffer overflows that could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of an end user’s system. These vulnerabilities affected Adobe Flash Player on Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Solaris and Android machines, as well as Adobe AIR (please read the full Adobe security bulletin for remediation information). The Palo Alto Networks Threat Research Team worked with Adobe Systems Incorporated to ensure that this vulnerability was patched for all Adobe Flash users.

To date, our researchers have discovered 34 Adobe and Microsoft vulnerabilities going back to 2007. That includes 14 Adobe Flash vulnerabilities (counting the two that we are reporting today) and is far more than any other research team in the industry.

Although there are no known cases where this vulnerability was exploited “in the wild”, it is important to remember that the use of these types cross-platform vulnerabilities – often delivered via compromised attachments in phishing emails – are a hallmark of the kind of modern threats that our customers are facing every day. The ease with which this vulnerability could be exploited illustrates the importance of being able to identify and block malware being delivered via these exploits – or isolate malware at the network level by using a firewall with deep visibility into encrypted and unknown traffic.

This is also why our research team’s work to identify new vulnerabilities is so valued. It is why their work to alleviate all types of threats is a vital part of our efforts to provide the most secure and best supported network security products on the market.