Detect Adobe Acrobat Use-After-Free Exploitation (CVE-2020-9715) in IBM QRadar
Detects exploitation of CVE-2020-9715, a use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat that allows arbitrary code execution. This vulnerability is listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog and has been actively exploited in the wild. Attackers typically deliver malicious PDF documents that trigger memory corruption upon rendering, leading to code execution in the context of the Acrobat process.
MITRE ATT&CK
QRadar Detection Query
SELECT DATEFORMAT(devicetime, 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss') AS EventTime, sourceip, username, "Process Name", "Parent Process Name", "Command"
FROM events
WHERE LOGSOURCETYPENAME(devicetype) ILIKE '%sysmon%'
AND ("Parent Process Name" ILIKE '%acrobat%' OR "Parent Process Name" ILIKE '%acrord32%' OR "Parent Process Name" ILIKE '%acrocef%')
AND ("Process Name" ILIKE '%cmd.exe%' OR "Process Name" ILIKE '%powershell.exe%' OR "Process Name" ILIKE '%wscript.exe%' OR "Process Name" ILIKE '%mshta.exe%' OR "Process Name" ILIKE '%rundll32.exe%' OR "Process Name" ILIKE '%certutil.exe%')
LAST 7 DAYS
ORDER BY devicetime DESCQRadar AQL query detecting Adobe Acrobat spawning high-risk child processes via Sysmon log source, indicating potential CVE-2020-9715 exploitation.
Data Sources
Required Tables
False Positives & Tuning
- Business automation workflows using Acrobat to generate and process documents
- IT managed Acrobat deployments with scripted post-processing
- Sandboxed environments where Acrobat is deliberately tested
Other platforms for CVE-2020-9715
Testing Methodology
Validate this detection against 4 adversary techniques from Atomic Red Team. Each test below lists the behaviour to exercise and the telemetry you should expect to see. Executable commands and cleanup steps are available with Pro.
- Test 1Simulate Acrobat UAF — Malicious PDF Spawning cmd.exe
Expected signal: Sysmon Event ID 1 showing cmd.exe with ParentImage path containing AcroRd32; DeviceProcessEvents entry in MDE with InitiatingProcessFileName = AcroRd32_sim.exe and FileName = cmd.exe
- Test 2Simulate Acrobat UAF — PowerShell Payload Execution
Expected signal: Sysmon Event ID 1 for powershell.exe with suspicious parent; DeviceProcessEvents capturing PowerShell command-line with -ExecutionPolicy Bypass flag
- Test 3Simulate Acrobat UAF — Executable Drop to Temp Directory
Expected signal: Sysmon Event ID 11 (FileCreate) for executable written to %TEMP%; Sysmon Event ID 1 for process launch from %TEMP% path; MDE DeviceFileEvents and DeviceProcessEvents entries
- Test 4Simulate Acrobat UAF — Outbound C2 Beacon Simulation
Expected signal: Sysmon Event ID 3 (NetworkConnect) for outbound connection to non-RFC1918 IP on non-standard port; DeviceNetworkEvents in MDE capturing the destination IP and port
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