Software Engineering Institute

Adobe Macromedia Shockwave Player is software that plays active web content developed in Macromedia and Adobe Director. Shockwave Player is available as an ActiveX control for Internet Explorer and as a plug-in for other web browsers. Shockwave is also available in "Full" and "Slim" installers. The "Slim" installer provides fewer Xtras, which may be installed on an on-demand basis when a Shockwave movie attempts to use them.

The "Full" installer for Shockwave player 12.1.1.151 provides Flash version 11.5.502.146, which was released on January 8, 2013.This version of Flash contains several exploitable vulnerabilities. Note that Shockwave uses its own Flash runtime, provided by the file Flash Asset.x32, rather than using a Flash runtime that may be installed on a system-wide basis.

By convincing a user to view a specially crafted Shockwave content (e.g., a web page or an HTML email message or attachment), an attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user.

We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem. Please consider the following workarounds:

Limit access to Director files

Restricting the handling of untrusted Director content may help mitigate this vulnerability. See Securing Your Web Browser for more information. Consider using the NoScript extension to whitelist web sites that can run Shockwave Player in Mozilla browsers such as Firefox. See the NoScript FAQ for more information.

Disable the Shockwave Player ActiveX control in Internet Explorer

The Shockwave Player ActiveX control can be disabled in Internet Explorer by setting the kill bit for the following CLSIDs:
{166B1BCA-3F9C-11CF-8075-444553540000}
{233C1507-6A77-46A4-9443-F871F945D258}
More information about how to set the kill bit is available in Microsoft Support Document 240797.Alternatively, the following text can be saved as a .REG file and imported to set the kill bit for this control:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX Compatibility\{166B1BCA-3F9C-11CF-8075-444553540000}]
"Compatibility Flags"=dword:00000400
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX Compatibility\{166B1BCA-3F9C-11CF-8075-444553540000}]
"Compatibility Flags"=dword:00000400

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX Compatibility\{233C1507-6A77-46A4-9443-F871F945D258}]
"Compatibility Flags"=dword:00000400
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX Compatibility\{233C1507-6A77-46A4-9443-F871F945D258}]
"Compatibility Flags"=dword:00000400
Use the Microsoft Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit

The Microsoft Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) can be used to help prevent exploitation of this vulnerability. CERT/CC has created a video tutorial for setting up EMET 3.0 on Windows 7. Note that platforms that do not support ASLR, such as Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, will not receive the same level of protection that modern Windows platforms will.

Enable DEP in Microsoft Windows

Consider enabling Data Execution Prevention (DEP) in supported versions of Windows. DEP should not be treated as a complete workaround, but it can mitigate the execution of attacker-supplied code in some cases. Microsoft has published detailed technical information about DEP in Security Research & Defense blog posts "Understanding DEP as a mitigation technology" part 1 and part 2. DEP should be used in conjunction with the application of patches or other mitigations described in this document.

Note that when relying on DEP for exploit mitigation, it is important to use a system that supports Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) as well. ASLR is not supported by Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 or earlier. ASLR was introduced with Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Please see the Microsoft SRD blog entry: On the effectiveness of DEP and ASLR for more details.