{"id":19428,"date":"2012-10-15T20:42:31","date_gmt":"2012-10-16T03:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.mcafee.com\/?p=19428"},"modified":"2025-05-27T20:05:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T03:05:39","slug":"a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/","title":{"rendered":"A Quick Analysis of the Flash Player Opcode-Verifying Code Execution Vulnerability"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On October 12, McAfee Labs learned of proof-of-concept code exploiting a newly patched Flash Player vulnerability. Adobe had patched this vulnerability in its <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adobe.com\/support\/security\/bulletins\/apsb12-22.html\">latest security update<\/a> on October 8. Our research team rapidly responded to this threat with an in-depth analysis of the root cause and the degree of exploitability.<\/p>\n<p>This specific vulnerability occurred due to a coding fault in Adobe&#8217;s ActionScript virtual machine (a.k.a. The Tamarin Project). Specifically, it lies in the way that AVM2 verifies the opcode OP_inclocal or OP_declocal. A checking logic step was mistakenly disabled by a macro. As a result, a U30 parameter was used directly without a bounds check, which leads to various code execution situations.<\/p>\n<h2>CVE-2012-5271 Threats<\/h2>\n<p>We assess the threat, CVE-2012-5271, by the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The root cause is quite simple. It&#8217;s in the core of the AVM (verification), so every platform&#8217;s Flash Player (such as the built-in Flash Player on Chrome and Windows 8) is affected.<\/li>\n<li>AVM is a scriptable virtual machine. Because the coding fault lies in its core verification process, attackers may have many opportunities to develop a working exploit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We strongly suggest users <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adobe.com\/support\/security\/bulletins\/apsb12-22.html\">update<\/a> their Flash Players as soon as possible. For McAfee customers, a User Defined Signature was released late on Friday, Oct 12 to deliver our protections. The signature name is &#8220;UDS-HTTP: Adobe Flash Player ActionScript Opcode OP_inclocal and OP_declocal Verifying Code Execution Vulnerability.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>McAfee Labs will continue to monitor the threat of this vulnerability.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>I&#8217;d like thank my colleagues Yichong Lin, Bing Sun, XiaoBo Chen, and Chong Xu for their collaboration on this analysis.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On October 12, McAfee Labs learned of proof-of-concept code exploiting a newly patched Flash Player vulnerability. Adobe had patched this&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[1814,180],"coauthors":[2524],"class_list":["post-19428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mcafee-labs","tag-computer-security","tag-malware"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Quick Analysis of the Flash Player Opcode-Verifying Code Execution Vulnerability | McAfee Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On October 12, McAfee Labs learned of proof-of-concept code exploiting a newly patched Flash Player vulnerability. Adobe had patched this vulnerability in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Quick Analysis of the Flash Player Opcode-Verifying Code Execution Vulnerability | McAfee Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On October 12, McAfee Labs learned of proof-of-concept code exploiting a newly patched Flash Player vulnerability. Adobe had patched this vulnerability in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"McAfee Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/McAfee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-16T03:42:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-28T03:05:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Haifei Li\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@McAfee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@McAfee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Haifei Li\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Haifei Li\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#\/schema\/person\/fd18845cc3f27ed398648df8cc802444\"},\"headline\":\"A Quick Analysis of the Flash Player Opcode-Verifying Code Execution Vulnerability\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-16T03:42:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-28T03:05:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/\"},\"wordCount\":278,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"computer security\",\"malware\"],\"articleSection\":[\"McAfee Labs\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/\",\"name\":\"A Quick Analysis of the Flash Player Opcode-Verifying Code Execution Vulnerability | McAfee Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-16T03:42:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-28T03:05:39+00:00\",\"description\":\"On October 12, McAfee Labs learned of proof-of-concept code exploiting a newly patched Flash Player vulnerability. Adobe had patched this vulnerability in\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Blog\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Other Blogs\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"McAfee Labs\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"A Quick Analysis of the Flash Player Opcode-Verifying Code Execution Vulnerability\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/\",\"name\":\"McAfee Blog\",\"description\":\"Internet Security News\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#organization\",\"name\":\"McAfee\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/mcafee-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/mcafee-logo.png\",\"width\":1286,\"height\":336,\"caption\":\"McAfee\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/McAfee\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/McAfee\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/mcafee\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/McAfee\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#\/schema\/person\/fd18845cc3f27ed398648df8cc802444\",\"name\":\"Haifei Li\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/88c52c07fcacd190468a32af554e5f36\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/49ae79ecae2f1bff04cb595e12d9cc72?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/49ae79ecae2f1bff04cb595e12d9cc72?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Haifei Li\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/haifeili\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/author\/haifei-li\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Quick Analysis of the Flash Player Opcode-Verifying Code Execution Vulnerability | McAfee Blog","description":"On October 12, McAfee Labs learned of proof-of-concept code exploiting a newly patched Flash Player vulnerability. Adobe had patched this vulnerability in","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Quick Analysis of the Flash Player Opcode-Verifying Code Execution Vulnerability | McAfee Blog","og_description":"On October 12, McAfee Labs learned of proof-of-concept code exploiting a newly patched Flash Player vulnerability. Adobe had patched this vulnerability in","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/","og_site_name":"McAfee Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/McAfee\/","article_published_time":"2012-10-16T03:42:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-05-28T03:05:39+00:00","author":"Haifei Li","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@McAfee","twitter_site":"@McAfee","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Haifei Li","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/"},"author":{"name":"Haifei Li","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#\/schema\/person\/fd18845cc3f27ed398648df8cc802444"},"headline":"A Quick Analysis of the Flash Player Opcode-Verifying Code Execution Vulnerability","datePublished":"2012-10-16T03:42:31+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-28T03:05:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/"},"wordCount":278,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#organization"},"keywords":["computer security","malware"],"articleSection":["McAfee Labs"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/","name":"A Quick Analysis of the Flash Player Opcode-Verifying Code Execution Vulnerability | McAfee Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-10-16T03:42:31+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-28T03:05:39+00:00","description":"On October 12, McAfee Labs learned of proof-of-concept code exploiting a newly patched Flash Player vulnerability. Adobe had patched this vulnerability in","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/a-quick-analysis-of-the-flash-player-opcode-verifying-code-execution-vulnerability\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Blog","item":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Other Blogs","item":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"McAfee Labs","item":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/other-blogs\/mcafee-labs\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"A Quick Analysis of the Flash Player Opcode-Verifying Code Execution Vulnerability"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/","name":"McAfee Blog","description":"Internet Security News","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#organization","name":"McAfee","url":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/mcafee-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/mcafee-logo.png","width":1286,"height":336,"caption":"McAfee"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/McAfee\/","https:\/\/x.com\/McAfee","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/mcafee\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/McAfee"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#\/schema\/person\/fd18845cc3f27ed398648df8cc802444","name":"Haifei Li","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/88c52c07fcacd190468a32af554e5f36","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/49ae79ecae2f1bff04cb595e12d9cc72?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/49ae79ecae2f1bff04cb595e12d9cc72?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Haifei Li"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/haifeili\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/author\/haifei-li\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19428"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214486,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19428\/revisions\/214486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19428"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=19428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}