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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 15 Jun 2022.
Flash PlayerApplication · Adobe

CVE-2014-8439

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2014-11-25
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 15.0.0.302 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild Remotely reachable No privileges

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
Adobe Flash Player before 13.0.0.258 and 14.x and 15.x before 15.0.0.239 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.424 on Linux, Adobe AIR before 15.0.0.293, Adobe AIR SDK before 15.0.0.302, and Adobe AIR SDK & Compiler before 15.0.0.302 allow attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (invalid pointer dereference) via unspecified vectors.

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

Memory corruption vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR allowing arbitrary code execution or denial of service via invalid pointer dereference. The unspecified vectors likely involve malformed Flash content that triggers improper memory handling, leading to controlled code execution or application crash.

MitigationUpdate Adobe Flash Player to version 13.0.0.258+, 15.0.0.239+ (14.x/15.x), or 11.2.202.424+ (Linux), and Adobe AIR to 15.0.0.293+ to patch the vulnerability.

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:<= 11.2.202.418<= 15.0.0.223<= 13.0.0.252
AirApplication
Affected:<= 15.0.0.292
Air SdkApplication
Affected:<= 15.0.0.301
Air Sdk \& CompilerApplication
Affected:< 15.0.0.302

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
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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. Check Adobe Flash Player version in Windows browsers
    For Internet Explorer: open PowerShell and run 'Get-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX Compatibility\{D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000}" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue' to find CLSID flags, then check the Flash.ocx file version in C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\. For Firefox: check the file version of NPSWF32.dll in the Firefox plugins folder. For Chrome: check the version in Chrome's internal Flash library or go to chrome://components.
    Affected if The Flash Player version is 11.2.202.418 or earlier on 11.x, 13.0.0.252 or earlier on 13.x, or 15.0.0.223 or earlier on 15.x
  2. Check Adobe Flash Player version in non-Windows systems
    On macOS, check /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin (system-wide) or ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ (user-level) and inspect the file info. On Linux, check /usr/lib/flash-plugin/ or /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/ for libflashplayer.so and inspect file version properties.
    Affected if The Flash Player version is 11.2.202.418 or earlier on Linux (11.x), or the version matches any affected branch (11.x <= 11.2.202.418, 13.x <= 13.0.0.252, 15.x <= 15.0.0.223)
  3. Check Adobe AIR version on Windows
    Open Control Panel > Programs and Features, locate Adobe AIR, and note the version. Alternatively, check the file version of the Adobe AIR executable at C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe AIR\Adobe AIR.exe or the air Runtime DLL in the application directory.
    Affected if The Adobe AIR version is 15.0.0.292 or earlier
  4. Check Adobe AIR SDK version for developers
    If you have the Adobe AIR SDK installed, locate the SDK directory (commonly in C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\ or a custom developer path) and check the version.txt file in the SDK root, or right-click the AIRSDK descriptor files and view properties.
    Affected if The Adobe AIR SDK version is 15.0.0.301 or earlier, or the Adobe AIR SDK & Compiler version is below 15.0.0.302

You are affected if Adobe Flash Player is installed at any of the affected version ranges (11.x <= 11.2.202.418, 13.x <= 13.0.0.252, 15.x <= 15.0.0.223), or Adobe AIR/SDK is at version 15.0.0.292 or earlier (or SDK & Compiler below 15.0.0.302).

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 15.0.0.302 or later
Fixed in 15.0.0.302
Interim mitigation

Update Adobe Flash Player to version 13.0.0.258+, 15.0.0.239+ (14.x/15.x), or 11.2.202.424+ (Linux), and Adobe AIR to 15.0.0.293+ to patch the vulnerability.

Recommended fix High confidence

Flash Player: 13.0.0.258+ (13.x), 15.0.0.239+ (14.x/15.x), 11.2.202.424+ (Linux); AIR: 15.0.0.293+; AIR SDK: 15.0.0.302+

  1. 1. Identify the currently installed Adobe Flash Player version by navigating to 'About Flash Player' in the player context menu or visiting adobe.com/software/flash/about
  2. 2. Identify the currently installed Adobe AIR version from the AIR Settings or installed programs list
  3. 3. For Flash Player 13.x: Upgrade to version 13.0.0.258 or later
  4. 4. For Flash Player 14.x/15.x on Windows or OS X: Upgrade to version 15.0.0.239 or later
  5. 5. For Flash Player 11.x on Linux: Upgrade to version 11.2.202.424 or later
  6. 6. For Adobe AIR: Upgrade to version 15.0.0.293 or later
  7. 7. For Adobe AIR SDK: Upgrade to version 15.0.0.302 or later
  8. 8. For Adobe AIR SDK & Compiler: Upgrade to version 15.0.0.302 or later
Caveat Flash Player reached end-of-life on December 31, 2020; consider migrating away from Flash-based content

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

Fix this in Flash Player Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
13.0 hours of engineering $2,320
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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-2014-8439 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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