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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-2016-7855

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2016-11-01
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 23.0.0.185 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild Remotely reachable No privileges 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 23.0.0.205 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.643 on Linux allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors, as exploited in the wild in October 2016.

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

A use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by exploiting memory corruption. The vulnerability was actively exploited in the wild in October 2016, indicating active threat actor interest.

MitigationUpdate Adobe Flash Player to version 23.0.0.205 (Windows/OS X) or 11.2.202.643 (Linux) or later. Consider removing Flash Player entirely given its end-of-life status and replacing with HTML5 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 WorkstationOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0
Flash PlayerApplication
Affected:<= 23.0.0.185<= 11.2.202.637

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. Verify if Adobe Flash Player is installed
    Check for the presence of Flash Player plugin in the browser or standalone installer. On Linux, check /usr/lib/flash-plugin/ or browser plugin directories. On Windows, check Program Files for Adobe/Flash Player or browser plugin locations.
    Affected if Adobe Flash Player is present on the system in any version
  2. Identify installed Adobe Flash Player version
    In browser, navigate to 'About Flash Player' in right-click menu or visit Adobe's version check page. On Linux, run: rpm -q flash-plugin or dpkg -l | grep flash. On Windows, check the file version of NPSWF32.dll or Flash32_*.ocx in System32.
    Affected if The installed version is 23.0.0.185 or earlier, or 11.2.202.637 or earlier for Linux
  3. Check for obsolete RHEL bundled Flash
    On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x or 6.x systems, check if the bundled flash-plugin package is installed: rpm -qa | grep -i flash. Also verify browser plugin presence in /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/
    Affected if Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x or 6.x has flash-plugin package installed from RHN repositories
  4. Confirm vulnerable version against affected ranges
    Compare the installed version number to the affected ranges: Adobe Flash Player 23.0.0.185 and earlier (Windows/OS X) or 11.2.202.637 and earlier (Linux). Versions 23.0.0.205 and 11.2.202.643 are the patched releases.
    Affected if Installed version falls at or below 23.0.0.185 (Windows/OS X) or 11.2.202.637 (Linux), or the RHEL flash-plugin package is present on RHEL 5.x or 6.x

The system is affected if Adobe Flash Player version 23.0.0.185 or earlier (Windows/OS X) or 11.2.202.637 or earlier (Linux) is installed, or if the flash-plugin package exists on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x or 6.x systems.

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 23.0.0.185
Vendor patch docs.microsoft.com →
Interim mitigation

Update Adobe Flash Player to version 23.0.0.205 (Windows/OS X) or 11.2.202.643 (Linux) or later. Consider removing Flash Player entirely given its end-of-life status and replacing with HTML5 alternatives.

Recommended fix High confidence

Flash Player 23.0.0.205 or later (Windows/OS X); Flash Player 11.2.202.643 or later (Linux)

  1. Check current Flash Player version by navigating to 'About Flash Player' in the browser or running: rpm -q flash-plugin
  2. Update the system package repository: sudo yum update
  3. Install the latest Flash Player update: sudo yum install flash-plugin or sudo yum update flash-plugin
  4. Restart all browsers to ensure the new version is loaded
  5. Verify the installed version matches or exceeds 23.0.0.205 (Windows/OS X) or 11.2.202.643 (Linux) by checking: about:plugins in browser or rpm -q flash-plugin
Caveat Adobe Flash Player reached end-of-life in December 2020 and no longer receives security updates. Consider removing Flash Player entirely and migrating to HTML5-based alternatives.

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
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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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-2016-7855 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