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Flash PlayerApplication · Adobe

CVE-2012-2040

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2012-06-09
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 11.2.202.235 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Untrusted search path vulnerability in the installer in 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 local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse executable file in an unspecified directory.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Untrusted search path vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player and AIR installers allows local privilege escalation. The installer executes Trojan horse executables from unspecified directories that a local attacker can control, running with elevated privileges during the installation process.

MitigationApply the vendor patches: upgrade Flash Player to 10.3.183.20+/11.3.300.257+ (Win/Mac), 11.2.202.236+ (Linux), 11.1.111.10+ (Android 2.x/3.x), or 11.1.115.9+ (Android 4.x); upgrade AIR to 3.3.0.3610+. This is a vendor installer vulnerability with no end-user custom remediation possible.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Flash PlayerApplication
Affected:<= 11.2.202.235<= 11.1.115.8<= 11.1.111.9
AirApplication
Affected:<= 3.2.0.2070
OpensuseOperating system
Affected:= 11.4= 12.1
Linux Enterprise DesktopOperating system
Affected:= 10= 11

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed Adobe Flash Player version on Windows
    Open Add/Remove Programs (appwiz.cpl) and locate 'Adobe Flash Player XX' entry, or check the DLL version at C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\Flash*.ocx by right-clicking and selecting Properties > Details. Alternatively, visit Adobe's version check page in a browser.
    Affected if The displayed version is 11.2.202.235 or lower, 11.1.115.8 or lower, or 11.1.111.9 or lower.
  2. Identify installed Adobe AIR version on Windows
    Open Add/Remove Programs and locate 'Adobe AIR' entry, or check the version of C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe AIR\Versions\X.0\Adobe AIR Application Installer.exe by right-clicking and viewing Properties > Details.
    Affected if The displayed version is 3.2.0.2070 or lower.
  3. Check Adobe Flash Player version on Linux via package manager
    Open a terminal and run 'rpm -qa | grep -i flash' (for RPM-based distros) or 'dpkg -l | grep -i flash' (Debian-based). Note the package name and version string returned.
    Affected if The reported Flash Player package version corresponds to 11.2.202.235 or lower, 11.1.115.8 or lower, or 11.1.111.9 or lower.
  4. Check Adobe AIR version on Linux
    Open a terminal and run 'rpm -qa | grep -i air' or 'dpkg -l | grep -i air' to list installed AIR packages. Note the version string.
    Affected if The AIR package version is 3.2.0.2070 or lower.
  5. Verify OpenSUSE or SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop version if running bundled Adobe products
    Check the OS version by running 'cat /etc/SuSE-release' or 'lsb_release -a'. If Adobe Flash Player or AIR was installed via the distribution's package repository, compare the Adobe package version against the vulnerable versions listed.
    Affected if The OS is OpenSUSE 11.4 or 12.1, or SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 or 11, with an Adobe package version matching the vulnerable ranges above.

You are affected if Adobe Flash Player version is 11.2.202.235 or lower, 11.1.115.8 or lower, or 11.1.111.9 or lower; or Adobe AIR version is 3.2.0.2070 or lower; or you are on OpenSUSE 11.4/12.1 or SUSE Linux Enterprise 10/11 with bundled vulnerable Adobe packages.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 11.2.202.235
Interim mitigation

Apply the vendor patches: upgrade Flash Player to 10.3.183.20+/11.3.300.257+ (Win/Mac), 11.2.202.236+ (Linux), 11.1.111.10+ (Android 2.x/3.x), or 11.1.115.9+ (Android 4.x); upgrade AIR to 3.3.0.3610+. This is a vendor installer vulnerability with no end-user custom remediation possible.

Recommended fix High confidence

Adobe Flash Player 11.2.202.236 or higher (Linux) / AIR 3.3.0.3610 or higher; or OpenSUSE vendor security updates

  1. Identify the exact version of Adobe Flash Player or AIR currently installed
  2. For Flash Player Linux: upgrade to version 11.2.202.236 or higher (or 10.3.183.20 for 10.x branch)
  3. For Adobe AIR Linux: upgrade to version 3.3.0.3610 or higher
  4. For OpenSUSE systems: apply vendor security updates via 'zypper patch' or 'zypper update' to receive the patched packages
  5. Verify the installation directory permissions to ensure no unauthorized executables can be placed in the search path
  6. After upgrade, confirm the installed version matches or exceeds the fixed versions: Flash Player 11.2.202.236 (Linux), AIR 3.3.0.3610
Caveat Adobe Flash Player and AIR reached end-of-life in December 2020; consider migrating away from these products entirely as no further security updates are available

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Flash Player Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
2.0 hours of engineering $750
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Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2012-2040 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data