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Flash PlayerApplication · Adobe

CVE-2015-5551

HIGH · 10.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2015-08-14
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 18.0.0.209 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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 Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.232 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.508 on Linux, Adobe AIR before 18.0.0.199, Adobe AIR SDK before 18.0.0.199, and Adobe AIR SDK & Compiler before 18.0.0.199 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2015-5127, CVE-2015-5130, CVE-2015-5134, CVE-2015-5539, CVE-2015-5540, CVE-2015-5550, CVE-2015-5556, CVE-2015-5557, CVE-2015-5559, CVE-2015-5561, CVE-2015-5563, CVE-2015-5564, and CVE-2015-5565.

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 and Adobe AIR allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by accessing memory after it has been freed. This is a critical memory corruption flaw where a pointer to freed memory is dereferenced, potentially allowing an attacker to control program execution flow.

MitigationUpdate Adobe Flash Player to version 18.0.0.232 or later (Windows/OS X) / 11.2.202.508 or later (Linux), and Adobe AIR to version 18.0.0.199 or later. Consider migrating away from Flash 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
Flash PlayerApplication
Affected:<= 11.2.202.491<= 18.0.0.209
AirApplication
Affected:<= 18.0.0.180
Air SdkApplication
Affected:<= 18.0.0.180
Air Sdk \& CompilerApplication
Affected:<= 18.0.0.180

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
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:L/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. Check Adobe Flash Player version on Windows
    Open Control Panel > Programs and Features, look for 'Adobe Flash Player' or check the version in the registry at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Macromedia\FlashPlayer\CurrentVersion (or HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Macromedia\FlashPlayer for 64-bit)
    Affected if The version listed is 11.2.202.491 or earlier, or 18.0.0.209 or earlier on Windows/OS X
  2. Check Adobe Flash Player version on Linux
    Open a terminal and run: rpm -q flash-player or dpkg -l | grep -i flash, or check /usr/lib/flash-plugin/libflashplayer.so version info
    Affected if The version is 11.2.202.491 or earlier on Linux systems
  3. Check Adobe AIR version
    Open Control Panel > Programs and Features, look for 'Adobe AIR' or run 'reg query HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\AIR /v Version' in command prompt on Windows
    Affected if The version is 18.0.0.180 or earlier
  4. Check Adobe AIR SDK version
    Look for the AIR SDK installation directory and check the version.txt or flex-sdk.xml file within the SDK folder, or run 'air-sdk-version' if available in the SDK bin folder
    Affected if The SDK version is 18.0.0.180 or earlier
  5. Identify if Flash Player plugin is enabled in browsers
    Check browser add-ons or plugins: in Chrome type chrome://plugins, in Firefox go to Add-ons > Plugins, or in IE check Manage Add-ons
    Affected if Adobe Flash Player plugin is listed and enabled in any browser

A user is affected if Adobe Flash Player version is 11.2.202.491 or earlier (Linux) or 18.0.0.209 or earlier (Windows/OS X), or if Adobe AIR/SDK version is 18.0.0.180 or earlier, and the software is installed and active.

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 18.0.0.209
Vendor patch helpx.adobe.com →
Interim mitigation

Update Adobe Flash Player to version 18.0.0.232 or later (Windows/OS X) / 11.2.202.508 or later (Linux), and Adobe AIR to version 18.0.0.199 or later. Consider migrating away from Flash as it reached end-of-life in December 2020.

Recommended fix High confidence

Flash Player 18.0.0.232 (Windows/OS X) or 11.2.202.508 (Linux); Adobe AIR/SDK/SDK & Compiler 18.0.0.199

  1. Identify the currently installed version of Adobe Flash Player, Adobe AIR, Adobe AIR SDK, or Adobe AIR SDK & Compiler
  2. Determine the appropriate product and operating system to identify the correct fixed version
  3. For Flash Player on Windows or OS X, upgrade to version 18.0.0.232 or later
  4. For Flash Player on Linux, upgrade to version 11.2.202.508 or later
  5. For Adobe AIR, upgrade to version 18.0.0.199 or later
  6. For Adobe AIR SDK, upgrade to version 18.0.0.199 or later
  7. For Adobe AIR SDK & Compiler, upgrade to version 18.0.0.199 or later
  8. Download the appropriate update from the official Adobe security bulletin at https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb15-19.html
Caveat Adobe Flash Player is deprecated and 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 Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,090
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,744.

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-2015-5551 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