Actively exploited vulnerability
Adobe Flash Player and AIR: memory corruption flaw under attack
CVE-2016-0984 · Adobe Flash Player and AIR Use-After-Free Vulnerability
What is affected
Adobe Flash Player and AIR 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.
Use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR allows attackers to execute code.
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
- Update Adobe Flash Player and AIR 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 products are 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 May 25, 2022, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by June 15, 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 55% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 99% 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
Use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.329 and 19.x and 20.x before 20.0.0.306 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.569 on Linux, Adobe AIR before 20.0.0.260, Adobe AIR SDK before 20.0.0.260, and Adobe AIR SDK & Compiler before 20.0.0.260 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-0973, CVE-2016-0974, CVE-2016-0975, CVE-2016-0982, and CVE-2016-0983.