With the installation of Spidermonkey and Libemu it provides Javascript and shellcode analysis wrappers too. Apart of this it’s able to create new PDF files and to modify existent ones.

Features

Analysis

• Decodings: hexadecimal, octal, name objects
• More used filters
• References in objects and where an object is referenced
• Strings search (including streams)
• Physical structure (offsets)
• Logical tree structure
• Metadata
• Modifications between versions (changelog)
• Compressed objects (object streams)
• Analysis and modification of Javascript (Spidermonkey): unescape, replace, join
• Shellcode analysis (sctest wrapper, Libemu)
• Variables (set command)
• Extraction of old versions of the document

Creation/Modification:

• Basic PDF creation
• Creation of PDF with Javascript executed wen the document is opened
• Creation of object streams to compress objects
• Embedded PDFs
• Strings and names obfuscation
• Malformed PDF output: without endobj, garbage in the header, bad header…
• Filters modification
• Objects modification

With all the recent PDF security scares and PDF hacking it’s important to have adequate tools for PDF analysis.

There are some other tools for dealing with PDF Analysis like:

PDFResurrect v0.9 Released – PDF Analysis and Scrubbing Utility & Origami – Parse, Analyze & Forge PDF Documents.

You can download peepdf here:

peepdf-0.1.zip

Or read more here.

It’s good to see Adobe is taking this matter seriously and rather than just issuing patch after patch (firefighting) they are trying to do something fundamentally different with their PDF reader software to fix the root cause.

Now I’m not saying this will solve all the PDF related problems, but it’s good to see them doing a ground up rebuild and implementing safety features like sandboxing.

Adobe has offered more details of the ‘sandbox’ security feature it plans to implement to secure its hugely popular but often-attacked PDF Reader software. First announced last July, the latest description put out by Adobe’s security development team makes clear that Reader’s new ‘protected mode’ will be no mere bolt-on. This is starting to look like a ground-up re-design of how the program operates, almost from scratch.

The new Reader design will see core and risky PDF functions such as font rendering, Javascript execution, 3D rendering and image parsing happen within the confines of the application itself, isolating these from the privileges of the operating system.

This effectively relegates Reader to a new rung of privilege below that if the system user, which stops the application simply accessing key parts of the OS such as the Registry or file system as it likes. Instead all such calls will have to go through a trusted broker process if they want to communicate beyond the sandbox.

It’s a good model though and similar to what Google have done with the Chrome browser.

Separating the ‘dangerous’ parts from the parts that have access to the underlying OS is extremely important, JavaScript execution of course being the main culprit. But other exploits have focused on font and image rendering so they need to be kept away too.

The new design won’t stop exploits targeting Reader but they will limit what can be done from within its confines. At the moment, that is more or less anything the attacker wants, including being able to take over the system.

“The challenge is to enable sandboxing while keeping user workflows functional without turning off features users depend on,” says Adobe’s blog.

As the developers admit, the potential hole in security is always the operating system itself, which can still be compromised, although exploiting such vulnerabilities is as easy as it easy a few years back. Microsoft’s software development lifecycle (SDL) has tightened up code security. The first version sandbox will also not protect against read access to the file system (which allows data theft) or registry, or restricting network access, but future versions will look at this aspect of security.

Adding defence mechanism to specific applications other than browsers is an unusual approach to application design, but Reader’s security troubles have gone beyond that of most applications.

They have a pretty tough challenge on their hands as we know the more security you implement the less usability you have. So they have a precarious balance between retaining features which users require and limiting the amount of damage the software can do to the OS.

But it’s certainly a step in the right direction and as stated above, it certainly wont prevent there being any more exploits in Adobe’s PDF Reader – but it will limit the damage any future exploits can cause.

Source: Network World

This time the vulnerability came out during Black Hat and it seems to be serious as Adobe are rushing out a patch for the issue.

This issue effects Adobe Reader client for Windows, Mac and UNIX based systems. This follows shortly after Microsoft pushed out an emergency patch for the .LNK exploit.

Adobe is rushing to develop a patch for a vulnerability in Acrobat Reader revealed at the Black Hat security conference. The update–expected the week of August 16–will be the third time this year that Adobe has been forced to fix flaws outside of its regularly scheduled quarterly update pattern.

Adobe published a security bulletin announcing the upcoming update for Adobe Reader 9.3.3 for Windows, Mac OS X, and UNIX, and Adobe Acrobat for Windows and Mac, as well as Reader and Acrobat version 8.2.3 for the same platforms to resolve a number of security issues. Adobe noted “that these updates represent an out-of-band release. Adobe is currently scheduled to release the next quarterly security update for Adobe Reader and Acrobat on October 12, 2010.”

Microsoft also released an out-of-band patch for the Windows shortcut vulnerability–only a week ahead of the planned Patch Tuesday updates. The rapid turnaround by Adobe from vulnerability discovery to patch is commendable, but the rise in zero-day exploits forcing both Adobe and Microsoft to frequently provide updates outside of the normal patch release cycle threatens to negate the benefits of having a regularly scheduled patch release system.

The issue being addressed by Adobe is a vulnerability in Adobe Reader which was unveiled at Black Hat by security researcher Charlie Miller. Miller has made a name for himself by repeatedly winning the Pwn2Own contest at the CanSec West security conference.

Charlie Miller has rocked it out before at Pwn2Own (more than once) and it was him who unveiled this vulnerability at Black Hat in recent weeks. Adobe have been criticized in the past for not being pro-active enough in their security efforts and coming out with classics like “Wait until year end for security patches”. This is also mentioned in another Network World article published at the same time here.

At least they are jumping to attention this time and doing something about it. And don’t be fooled, this is a serious exploit that can lead to arbitrary code execution when a vulnerable user views a maliciously crafted PDF file containing this exploit.

A Secunia advisory related to the Adobe flaw explains “The vulnerability is caused due to an integer overflow error in CoolType.dll when parsing the “maxCompositePoints” field value in the “maxp” (Maximum Profile) table of a TrueType font. This can be exploited to corrupt memory via a PDF file containing a specially crafted TrueType font.”

Summed up in plain English that IT admins and users who are not developers can understand, Secunia adds “Successful exploitation may allow execution of arbitrary code.” Bottom line: an attacker could exploit the Adobe Reader flaw to take control of a vulnerable system and install or execute other malicious software.

Interestingly, it is a flaw in the way fonts are rendered in PDF documents that allows the JailbreakMe Web site to circumvent iPhone defenses and alter the core functionality of the smartphone OS. However, according to Miller the flaws are unrelated to one another. Thankfully, Apple is hard at work updating iOS to address that issue.

As mentioned in the last paragraph the web based jailbreak for Apples latest iOS is also using a PDF flaw as the base exploit to run the jailbreak.

It seems like PDF is breaking in all kinds of different ways, perhaps time to look for a format? Or at least use other PDF readers as we’ve suggested before with Foxit! Although it has a share of vulnerabilities too they are far fewer and less serious than those in Adobe software. Another option suggestion is Nuance PDF Reader.

Source: Network World

At least! Adobe has sorted itself out and released patches for 17 critical vulnerabilities in their Reader and Acrobat applications. We reported back in January about Active Exploitation Of Unpatched PDF Vulnerabilities.

The latest slew of vulnerabilities has been actively exploited by hackers for at least the past month as detected in the wild by anti-virus companies. Many of the vulnerabilities were critical and could lead to remote code execution, especially combined with the recent flash exploits.

They had to step up as well and get the patches out fast because the code went public in June.

Adobe on Tuesday patched 17 critical vulnerabilities in Reader and Acrobat, including one that hackers have been using for nearly a month to commandeer PCs.

Another patch fixed a design flaw in the PDF format that attackers have been exploiting since April to dupe users into downloading a Trojan horse.

Adobe rushed the security update, which was originally slated to ship July 13, because exploit code went public and attacks using rigged PDF documents started showing on antivirus vendors’ reporting systems four weeks ago. The company patched Flash — hackers were tricking people into visiting malicious sites, then using the same bug to launch drive-by attacks — on June 10.

Sixteen of the 17 fixed flaws were labeled with the phrase “could lead to code execution” in Adobe’s advisory , the company’s way of saying that the bug was critical and could be used to hijack machines. Like Apple , and unlike Microsoft , Adobe doesn’t rate the severity of the vulnerabilities it patches. The seventeenth patch was also likely critical: “Arbitrary code execution has not been demonstrated, but may be possible,” the advisory read.

Looks like they’ve been having some serious problems, not just run of the mill exploits but problems with the very architecture and design of the Adobe software. Some of the biggest malware vectors for distribution last year came from Adobe Reader flaws.

And it has been happening in the wild, these flaws allowed malicious bot-net herders to peddle their wares and infect thousands of people.

Another fix addressed a design problem in the PDF document format that could be leveraged to con users into downloading malware. The bug, which was not strictly a security vulnerability, was first disclosed by Belgium researcher Didier Stevens in late March. Stevens demonstrated how a multi-stage attack using the PDF specification’s “/Launch” function could successfully exploit a fully-patched copy of Adobe Reader. Stevens also showed how a Reader warning could be changed to further fool users.

Hackers have been using Stevens’ technique in mass attacks to infect Windows PCs with bot Trojans.

With the updates to versions 9.3.3 and 8.2.3, Adobe changed Reader and Acrobat so that the /Launch function was disabled by default — in earlier editions it had been turned on — and fixed the bug in the warning dialog so hackers couldn’t modify it. “Today’s update includes changes to resolve the misuse of this command,” said Steve Gottwals, an Adobe group product manager, on a company blog . “We added functionality to block any attempts to launch an executable or other harmful objects by default. We also altered the way the existing warning dialog works to thwart the known social engineering attacks.”

Stevens confirmed the fixes in a post to his blog Tuesday. “Not only is the dialog box fixed, but the /Launch action is also disabled by default,” he said.

Five of the 17 bugs Adobe patched Tuesday were reported by Tavis Ormandy, the Google security engineer who was at the center of a brouhaha earlier this month after he publicly disclosed a vulnerability in Windows when Microsoft wouldn’t commit to a patching deadline.

Thankfully they’ve disabled the /Launch function by default now and fixed other bugs which were classified as critical. Incidentally 5 of the 17 bugs were reported by Tavis Ormandy the Google engineer.

That guy has quite a record for uncovering software based vulnerabilities.

Source: Network World

Fairly wide-spread attacks based on the latest vulnerability in Adobe PDF Reader have been spotted by Symantec, they appear to be variants on old attacks but still can be very effective.

It’s not the first time this has happened, back in February 2009 Hackers targeted a 0-day exploit in PDF Reader.

With one variant of this current attack seeing 34,000 detections on Symantec’s network alone, it could be considered fairly widespread.

A week before Adobe is scheduled to patch a critical vulnerability in its popular PDF software, hackers are actively exploiting the bug with both targeted and large-scale attacks, a security researcher said today.

The SANS Institute’s Internet Storm Center (ISC) reported Monday that they’d received samples of a new rigged PDF document that hijacked PCs using a bug Adobe acknowledged Dec. 14 . Later last month, Adobe said it would not patch the bug until Jan. 12. In his write-up of the sample, ISC analyst Bojan Zdrnja called the attack PDF “sophisticated” and its use of egg-hunt shellcode “sneaky.”

“Egg-hunt shellcode” is a term for a multi-stage payload used when the hacker can’t determine where in a process’ address space the code will end up.

Today, Joshua Talbot, security intelligence manager at Symantec, confirmed that the malicious PDF exploited the Adobe Reader and Acrobat vulnerability, but unlike Zdrnja, said it wasn’t out of the ordinary. “It’s not particularly novel or sophisticated,” Talbot said.

It seems the solution is the same as it has always been, disable JavaScript support in PDF Reader. But honestly, how many non-tech savvy users will do that? Or even know HOW to do that?

Mine recommendation of course is always to use Foxit PDF Reader and avoid these issues all together.

Which I have of course recommended since 2008 back when Adobe PDF Reader was getting pwned 2 years ago.

All the maker of the recently-discovered exploit did, Talbot added, was take code published in a 2004 research paper and make minor modifications. “These techniques aren’t new or clever, but the same things that all attackers are doing,” Talbot argued.

Although the malicious PDF described by ISC has been seen in only limited numbers — designed for high-profile targets, such as company executives or personnel with access to network passwords — Symantec has monitored bigger attacks exploiting the PDF bug. One attack generated more than 34,000 detections on Symantec’s global detection network, peaking on Dec. 31 before falling sharply.

“We’re definitely seeing activity out there, since the vulnerability is unpatched,” said Talbot. When asked to put that attack on the size scale, Talbot answered, “That puts it in the class of being actively exploited. It shows that there’s both going on … that attackers are crafting one-off exploits for their own purposes, and that there are people who are trying to distribute exploits to as many people as possible.”

Hopefully Adobe will pull the patch forward seen as though this is being actively exploited and push the patch out to users ASAP.

It’s currently stated that Adobe will release the patch on January 12th at their support site, which thankfully isn’t too far off.

Perhaps they take testing seriously so their patch cycle will naturally be delayed.

Source: Network World

PDFResurrect is a tool aimed at analyzing PDF documents. The PDF format allows for previous document changes to be retained in a more recent version of the document, thereby creating a running history of changes for the document. This tool attempts to extract all previous versions while also producing a summary of changes between versions.

This tool can also “scrub” or write data over the original instances of PDF objects that have been modified or deleted, in an effort to disguise information from previous versions that might not be intended for anyone else to read.

Release Notes

v0.9 is a bug fix release and addresses the gathering of data (within limit) for the Creator MetaData at the end of a PDF. The previous version would stop prematurely, or possibly get too much info (in certain cases).

You can download PDFResurrect v0.9 here:

pdfresurrect-v0_9.tar.gz

Or read more here.

origami is a Ruby framework designed to parse, analyze, and forge PDF documents. This is NOT a PDF rendering library. It aims at providing a scripting tool to generate and analyze malicious PDF files. As well, it can be used to create on-the-fly customized PDFs, or to inject (evil) code into already existing documents.

Features

• Create PDF documents from scratch.
• Parse existing documents, modify them and recompile them.
• Explore documents at the object level, going deep into the document structure, uncompressing PDF object streams and desobfuscating names and strings.
• High-level operations, such as encryption/decryption, signature, file attachments…
• A GTK interface to quickly browse into the document contents.

Full Scripts

Some scripts are provided to help in performing common actions on PDF files. You can contribute more by sending your own scripts to origami(at)security-labs.org.

• detectjs.rb: search for all JavaScript objects.
• embed.rb: add an attachment to a PDF file.
• create-jspdf.rb: add a JavaScript to a PDF file, executed when the document is opened.
• moebius.rb: transform a PDF to a moebius strip.
• encrypt.rb: encrypt a PDF file.

You can download Origami here:

origami-1.0.0-beta1.tar.gz

Or read more here.