Adobe Flash Player: memory corruption flaw under attack

What is affected

Adobe Flash Player is found on ordinary personal computers and phones, so this is not only a problem for companies. If you use it and have not updated since the fix was released, you are exposed.

Adobe Flash Player contains a memory corruption vulnerability that allows for remote code execution or denial-of-service (DoS).

What an attacker can do

This is a memory corruption flaw. It lets an attacker corrupt the program's memory by feeding it specially crafted content: a web page, a file or a network message. The result ranges from a crash to the attacker running their own code.

How it is reached

Over the internet or network

Access the attacker needs

No account needed

Does the victim have to do something?

Yes, the victim must open or click something

What to do

1. Update Adobe Flash Player now. Open the update or "About" screen, install whatever is offered and restart the app or device, because the fix is not active until you do.
2. Turn on automatic updates so the next fix arrives without you having to look for it.
3. If your device is too old to receive this update, stop using the affected app for anything sensitive and plan a replacement.

The impacted product is end-of-life and should be disconnected if still in use.

How urgent is it

CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on March 28, 2022, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by April 18, 2022, a deadline that has already passed. That deadline does not bind anyone else, but it shows how seriously the agency rates it.

The EPSS model estimates a 7.8% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 95% of all scored vulnerabilities.

Its CVSS severity score is 7.5 out of 10 (high), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.

Technical description

Adobe Flash Player before 10.3.183.20 and 11.x before 11.3.300.257 on Windows and Mac OS X; before 10.3.183.20 and 11.x before 11.2.202.236 on Linux; before 11.1.111.10 on Android 2.x and 3.x; and before 11.1.115.9 on Android 4.x, and Adobe AIR before 3.3.0.3610, allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2012-2037.