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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 24 Mar 2022.
Enterprise Linux DesktopOperating system · Redhat

CVE-2015-5119

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2015-07-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 18.0.0.194 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild High EPSS Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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
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.

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

Use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player's ByteArray class (ActionScript 3) allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via crafted Flash content that overrides the valueOf function, causing memory corruption. Exploited in the wild in July 2015.

MitigationUpgrade to Adobe Flash Player 18.0.0.203 or later (Windows/OS X) / 11.2.202.481 or later (Linux), or remove Flash Player entirely as it reached end-of-life in December 2020.

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
Enterprise Linux DesktopOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0
Enterprise Linux EusOperating system
Affected:= 6.6
Enterprise Linux ServerOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0
Enterprise Linux Server AusOperating system
Affected:= 6.6
Enterprise Linux Server From RhuiOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0
Enterprise Linux WorkstationOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0
Flash PlayerApplication
Affected:>= 13.0.0.182, <= 13.0.0296>= 14.0.0.125, <= 18.0.0.194<= 11.2.202.468
EvergreenOperating system
Affected:= 11.4

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
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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. Verify if Adobe Flash Player is installed
    Check common plugin locations: /usr/lib/flash-plugin/, /usr/lib64/flash-plugin/, ~/.mozilla/plugins/, /opt/flash-plugin/, or examine browser's plugin list (chrome://plugins or about:addons in Firefox)
    Affected if Adobe Flash Player is present in the browser or system
  2. Identify the installed Flash Player version
    On Linux, check the version file in the plugin directory (e.g., version.txt or libflashplayer.so properties) or use the Flash Player version checker page in a browser. On systems with rpm, run: rpm -q flash-plugin or rpm -qa | grep -i flash
    Affected if Version falls within any of the affected ranges: 13.0.0.182 to 13.0.0.296, 14.0.0.125 to 18.0.0.194, or 11.2.202.468 or earlier
  3. Confirm Flash Player is enabled in browsers
    Check browser configuration: in Firefox, navigate to about:addons > Plugins; in Chrome, navigate to chrome://plugins. Verify if Flash Player plugin status is set to 'Always Activate' or 'Ask to Activate' rather than 'Never Activate'
    Affected if Flash Player is enabled or set to ask before activating in any browser
  4. Check for execution of untrusted Flash content
    Review browser history or logs for visits to untrusted websites that may serve Flash content, or examine local .swf files that may have been opened
    Affected if Users have accessed or are likely to access Flash content from untrusted sources while using a vulnerable Flash version

Your environment is affected if Adobe Flash Player version is 13.0.0.182 through 13.0.0.296, 14.0.0.125 through 18.0.0.194, or 11.2.202.468 or earlier AND the browser plugin is enabled and can execute Flash content.

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 18.0.0.194
Vendor patch helpx.adobe.com →
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to Adobe Flash Player 18.0.0.203 or later (Windows/OS X) / 11.2.202.481 or later (Linux), or remove Flash Player entirely as it reached end-of-life in December 2020.

Recommended fix High confidence

Adobe Flash Player 18.0.0.204 or later (18.x branch) / 13.0.0.302 or later (13.x branch) / 11.2.202.500 or later (11.x branch)

  1. 1. Remove Adobe Flash Player from the affected system. On RHEL/CentOS systems, use: yum remove flash-plugin or rpm -e flash-plugin
  2. 2. If Flash Player is required for legacy applications, download the latest patched version from Adobe's official archive (version 18.0.0.204 or later for the 18.x branch, version 13.0.0.302 or later for the 13.x branch)
  3. 3. Install the new Flash Player package appropriate for your OS (Windows, OS X, or Linux)
  4. 4. Verify the installed Flash Player version by navigating to 'About Flash Player' in the Flash settings manager
  5. 5. Alternatively, for long-term security, migrate legacy Flash-based applications to HTML5 or other modern technologies as Adobe Flash Player reached end-of-life in December 2020
Caveat Flash Player is deprecated and reached end-of-life in December 2020; no further security updates will be provided by Adobe

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

Fix this in Enterprise Linux Desktop Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
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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-2015-5119 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