Rewterz Threat Advisory – Microsoft Edge Web Browser zero-day exploit about to unleash

Two researchers have successfully developed a zero-day exploit for bypassing Microsoft Edge browser’s sandboxing.

IMPACT: NORMAL

PUBLISH DATE: 06-11-2018

OVERVIEW

Two researchers have collaborated to discover a zero-day remote code execution vulnerability in the Microsoft Edge web browser. The zero-day can be revealed on the internet anytime, as exploit brokers are paying big amounts of money for such loopholes in systems. The zero-day vulnerability is aimed at escaping the browser sandbox.

ANALYSIS

The efforts of the two experts were obstructed by a “crash bug in the text editor” that was being used by Liang to write the code for the exploit. The researchers have already created the Proof of Concept code for validating their findings of the zeroday.

The researchers concentrated their efforts on acquiring full sandbox escaping of the code. While developing a stable exploit, they additionally wanted to gain escalated execution privileges to system. Consequently, the exploiter of this vulnerability would be able to gain total control over the machine. The Wadi Fuzzer utility from SensePost is said to have been used for finding the zero-day bug.

The fact that Microsoft Edge has not been notified about this vulnerability means there are no patches currently available for this vulnerability. It could not only result in massive campaigns of Remote code Execution exploiting the Microsoft Edge browser, but also lead to privilege escalation for taking over entire systems.

Microsoft Edge users need to be extra vigilant because this vulnerability can be sold for big amounts of money with Proof of Concept. Exploit brokers are desperately looking for fresh penetration codes developed to target web browsers. Specially when a code acquires the sandbox escaping, it’s sold for attractive compensations.

For Example: Zerodium pays $50,000 for a remote code execution (RCE) 0-day exploit in Edge and doubles the payout for when sandbox escaping is achieved.

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

Microsoft Edge Web Browser

Mitigation

There is no work-around or patch available for this zero-day yet.

If you think you’re the victim of a cyber-attack, immediately send an email to soc@rewterz.com for a quick response.