Research

Public disclosure date: 7/21/2011

Type of vulnerability: Insecure Library Loading (DLL Hijacking)

Exploit Vectors: Local and Remote

Vulnerability Description: Foxit Reader is vulnerable to a Insecure Library Loading vulnerability. The libraries identified as being vulnerable are dwmapi.dll, dwrite.dll and msdrm.dll. The vulnerability lies in the way Microsoft Windows loads DLLs. If applications load a library from a specific path and call that path implicitly, Microsoft Windows searches several default paths to find and load the library. A malicious attacker can create a malicious DLL with the same name and place it in a directory where Microsoft Windows searches by default. The application will load the malicious DLL resulting in arbitrary code execution.

Tested on: Windows XP SP3 and Foxit Reader version 5.0.1.0523.

Affected software versions: Foxit Reader version 5.0.1.0523 (previous versions may also be vulnerable)

Fixed in: Foxit Reader version 5.0.2.0718.

Remediation guidelines: The vendor has provided a patch to fix this issue. Please upgrade to Foxit Reader version 5.0.2.0718.