Actively exploited vulnerability

Adobe Flash Player: memory corruption flaw under attack

CVE-2014-0502 · Adobe Flash Player Double Free Vulnerablity

Concerns everyone who uses it8.8 high

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 double free vulnerability that allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code.

CISA's description

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 (EoL) and/or end-of-service (EoS). Users should discontinue utilization of the product.

Action required by CISA for US federal agencies

Vendor advisories and fixes

How urgent is it

CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on September 17, 2024, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by October 8, 2024, 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 25% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 98% of all scored vulnerabilities.

Its CVSS severity score is 8.8 out of 10 (high), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.

Technical description

Double free vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player before 11.7.700.269 and 11.8.x through 12.0.x before 12.0.0.70 on Windows and Mac OS X and before 11.2.202.341 on Linux, Adobe AIR before 4.0.0.1628 on Android, Adobe AIR SDK before 4.0.0.1628, and Adobe AIR SDK & Compiler before 4.0.0.1628 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors, as exploited in the wild in February 2014.

NIST National Vulnerability Database
5,442 members already hereReading, writing, commenting and voting. 0 verified · 167 joined this year