Actively exploited vulnerability
Adobe Flash Player: memory corruption flaw under attack
CVE-2015-5119 · Adobe Flash Player Use-After-Free Vulnerability
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.
A use-after-free vulnerability exists within the ActionScript 3 ByteArray class in Adobe Flash Player that allows an attacker to perform remote code execution.
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?
- No, works without the victim doing anything
What to do
- 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.
- Turn on automatic updates so the next fix arrives without you having to look for it.
- 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 3, 2022, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by March 24, 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 99% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 99.9% of all scored vulnerabilities.
Its CVSS severity score is 9.8 out of 10 (critical), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.
Technical description
Use-after-free vulnerability in the ByteArray class in the ActionScript 3 (AS3) implementation in Adobe Flash Player 13.x through 13.0.0.296 and 14.x through 18.0.0.194 on Windows and OS X and 11.x through 11.2.202.468 on Linux allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via crafted Flash content that overrides a valueOf function, as exploited in the wild in July 2015.