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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-2015-5123

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2015-07-14
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 18.0.0.203 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild 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 BitmapData 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 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 BitmapData ActionScript 3 implementation allows remote attackers to achieve arbitrary code execution by crafting Flash content that exploits the valueOf function override to trigger memory corruption after object freeing.

MitigationUpdate Flash Player to the latest patched version, or given Flash Player reached end-of-life in December 2020, remove or disable Flash Player entirely across all affected systems.

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
EvergreenOperating system
Affected:= 11.4
Linux Enterprise DesktopOperating system
Affected:= 11= 12
Linux Enterprise Workstation ExtensionOperating system
Affected:= 12
Flash PlayerApplication
Affected:>= 11.0, <= 11.2.202.481>= 13.0, <= 13.0.0.302>= 18.0, <= 18.0.0.203

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. Detect if Adobe Flash Player is installed
    Search for the Flash Player plugin library file (commonly libflashplayer.so in browser plugin directories) or check system package manager for flash-plugin package
    Affected if Flash Player is present on the system
  2. Identify installed Flash Player version on RHEL/SUSE
    Use the system package manager (rpm -q flash-plugin for RHEL, rpm -q libflashplayer for SUSE) to query the installed Flash Player package version
    Affected if The installed version falls within 11.0 to 11.2.202.481, 13.0 to 13.0.0.302, or 18.0 to 18.0.203
  3. Identify installed Flash Player version on openSUSE
    Use zypper or rpm to query the flash-player package version
    Affected if The installed version is 11.4 or within the affected ranges for Adobe Flash Player
  4. Check if Flash Player browser plugin is loaded
    Examine browser plugin directories (~/.mozilla/plugins, /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins, /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins) for the Flash Player library and check if any browsers have it enabled
    Affected if The Flash Player plugin file exists and browsers can load it
  5. Verify platform version matches affected list
    Check the operating system version using 'cat /etc/os-release' or 'uname -a' to confirm if running RHEL 5.0, 6.0, 6.6; SUSE Linux Enterprise 11, 12; or openSUSE 11.4
    Affected if The OS version is one of the specifically listed vulnerable versions AND Flash Player is installed

A user is affected if Adobe Flash Player is installed and its version falls within the vulnerable ranges (11.0-11.2.202.481, 13.0-13.0.0.302, or 18.0-18.0.203) on a listed platform version.

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 18.0.0.203
Interim mitigation

Update Flash Player to the latest patched version, or given Flash Player reached end-of-life in December 2020, remove or disable Flash Player entirely across all affected systems.

Recommended fix High confidence

Adobe Flash Player 18.0.0.204 or later (or the latest available version for your platform)

  1. 1. Identify the installed Adobe Flash Player version by navigating to 'about:plugins' in the browser or checking the system's installed packages.
  2. 2. For Windows/OS X users: Download and install Adobe Flash Player version 18.0.0.204 or later from the official Adobe Flash Player download page (https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/).
  3. 3. For Linux users: Install the updated flash-plugin package from the system package manager (yum or apt-get depending on distribution).
  4. 4. For Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems: Run 'yum update flash-plugin' or 'apt-get install flash-plugin' to fetch the patched version.
  5. 5. For SUSE Linux Enterprise systems: Use 'zypper update flash-player' to apply the security update.
  6. 6. Restart all browsers after applying the update to ensure the new Flash Player plugin is loaded.
  7. 7. Verify the updated version by checking 'about:plugins' or visiting the Adobe version check page.
Caveat Adobe Flash Player reached end-of-life on December 31, 2020 and no longer receives security updates. Consider migrating away from Flash-based content.

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
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
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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-2015-5123 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