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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 4 May 2022.
Enterprise Linux DesktopOperating system · Redhat

CVE-2015-5122

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2015-07-14
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 18.0.0.204 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild High EPSS Public exploit 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
Use-after-free vulnerability in the DisplayObject class in the ActionScript 3 (AS3) implementation in Adobe Flash Player 13.x through 13.0.0.302 on Windows and OS X, 14.x through 18.0.0.203 on Windows and OS X, 11.x through 11.2.202.481 on Linux, and 12.x through 18.0.0.204 on Linux Chrome installations allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via crafted Flash content that leverages improper handling of the opaqueBackground property, 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 DisplayObject class allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via crafted Flash content that improperly handles the opaqueBackground property, leading to memory corruption.

MitigationRemove Adobe Flash Player entirely from all systems as it has reached end-of-life and no vendor patches are available; replace any Flash-based functionality with modern alternatives.

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 ServerOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0
Enterprise Linux Server EusOperating system
Affected:= 6.6
Enterprise Linux WorkstationOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0
Flash PlayerApplication
Affected:>= 13.0, <= 13.0.0.302>= 18.0, <= 18.0.0.203>= 18.0, <= 18.0.0.204>= 11.0, <= 11.2.202.481
Flash Player Desktop RuntimeApplication
Affected:>= 18.0, <= 18.0.0.203
EvergreenOperating system
Affected:= 11.4
Linux Enterprise DesktopOperating system
Affected:= 11= 12

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. Check if Adobe Flash Player is installed
    On Linux, run: rpm -qa | grep -i flash or ls /usr/lib/flash-plugin/ or ls /usr/lib64/flash-plugin/. On Windows, check C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\ or C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash\ for flash*.dll files.
    Affected if No Flash Player is found, the system is not affected.
  2. Determine the installed Flash Player version
    On Linux, run: rpm -qi flash-plugin or check the version file in the plugin directory. On Windows, right-click the flash*.dll file in the Flash directory, select Properties, and view the File Version.
    Affected if The version cannot be determined or is not visible.
  3. Compare the installed version against affected ranges
    Match your installed version to these ranges: Adobe Flash Player versions 11.0 through 11.2.202.481, 13.0 through 13.0.0.302, 18.0 through 18.0.0.203, and 18.0 through 18.0.0.204. Adobe Flash Player Desktop Runtime versions 18.0 through 18.0.0.203. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0 and 6.0, RHEL Server EUS 6.6, openSUSE 11.4, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 and 12.
    Affected if The installed version falls within any of these ranges.
  4. Confirm the browser plugin is active
    Open a browser and navigate to about:plugins (Firefox) or chrome://plugins (Chrome) to verify the Flash Player NPAPI or PPAPI plugin is enabled and loaded.
    Affected if Flash Player plugin is enabled in any web browser.

The environment is affected if Adobe Flash Player is installed with a version matching the affected ranges and the browser plugin is active or loadable.

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 18.0.0.204
Interim mitigation

Remove Adobe Flash Player entirely from all systems as it has reached end-of-life and no vendor patches are available; replace any Flash-based functionality with modern alternatives.

Recommended fix High confidence

N/A - Flash Player EOL; migrate to HTML5-based alternatives

  1. Adobe Flash Player reached end of life (EOL) on December 31, 2020 and no longer receives security updates.
  2. Uninstall Flash Player from all affected systems using the system's package manager (e.g., yum remove flash-plugin on RHEL/CentOS).
  3. Remove any remaining Flash Player browser plugins from browser plugin directories (e.g., /usr/lib/flash-plugin/, /usr/lib64/flash-plugin/).
  4. Identify and migrate any remaining Flash-based web content to modern HTML5 technologies.
  5. Verify removal by checking that flash-plugin package is no longer installed: rpm -qa | grep -i flash
  6. Remove or block Flash-related files in browser profiles to prevent re-enablement.
Caveat Removal of Flash Player will make any Flash-dependent applications or content inaccessible; full migration to HTML5 is required

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

Fix this in Enterprise Linux Desktop Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,750
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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-2015-5122 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