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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 15 Apr 2022.
Flash Player Desktop RuntimeApplication · Adobe

CVE-2016-7892

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2016-12-15
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 23.0.0.207 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
Adobe Flash Player versions 23.0.0.207 and earlier, 11.2.202.644 and earlier have an exploitable use after free vulnerability in the TextField class. Successful exploitation could lead to arbitrary code execution.

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

Adobe Flash Player versions 23.0.0.207 and earlier contain a use-after-free vulnerability in the TextField class. The vulnerability allows attackers to free memory while still holding references to it, then reallocate that memory with malicious data, leading to arbitrary code execution when the dangling pointer is dereferenced.

MitigationUpdate Adobe Flash Player to the latest version. Note: Adobe Flash Player reached End-of-Life in December 2020; organizations still relying on Flash should migrate to modern web technologies as no further security updates will be available.

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 Player Desktop RuntimeApplication
Affected:<= 23.0.0.207
Flash PlayerApplication
Affected:<= 23.0.0.207<= 11.2.202.644

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. Confirm Flash Player installation on Windows
    Open Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Macromedia\FlashPlayer or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Macromedia\FlashPlayer. Check the Version value.
    Affected if The registry key exists, indicating Flash Player is installed.
  2. Confirm Flash Player installation on Mac
    Check /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Flash Player/ for installed components, or open Safari and go to Safari > About Safari > Plug-ins to list installed plugins.
    Affected if Flash Player components or plugin is listed.
  3. Confirm Flash Player installation on Linux
    Check browser plugin directories: ~/.mozilla/plugins/ and /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/ for libflashplayer.so, or run dpkg -l | grep flash (Debian) or rpm -qa | grep flash (RHEL).
    Affected if The libflashplayer.so file exists or a flash package is listed.
  4. Retrieve installed version on Windows
    Right-click npflash32.dll or npflash64.dll (found in C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash or C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash), select Properties, and view the File version.
    Affected if The DLL version displays a number equal to or lower than 23.0.0.207.
  5. Retrieve installed version on Linux
    Run: strings /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so | grep "FlashPlayer" | head -1, or check the version via the browser plugin page.
    Affected if The version displayed is equal to or lower than 11.2.202.644.

If Adobe Flash Player is installed and its version is 23.0.0.207 or earlier (Windows/Mac) or 11.2.202.644 or earlier (Linux), the environment is affected by this use-after-free vulnerability in the TextField class.

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 23.0.0.207
Vendor patch docs.microsoft.com →
Interim mitigation

Update Adobe Flash Player to the latest version. Note: Adobe Flash Player reached End-of-Life in December 2020; organizations still relying on Flash should migrate to modern web technologies as no further security updates will be available.

Recommended fix High confidence

Adobe Flash Player 24.0.0.186 or later (or the latest available version from Adobe)

  1. 1. Identify the exact Adobe Flash Player version installed by navigating to About Flash Player in the plugin or checking the version through the system.
  2. 2. Download Adobe Flash Player version 24.0.0.186 or later from the official Adobe website (get.adobe.com/flashplayer).
  3. 3. Ensure to download the correct variant for your system (ActiveX for Internet Explorer, NPAPI for Firefox, or PPAPI for Chrome/Opera).
  4. 4. Close all web browsers and applications that use Flash Player.
  5. 5. Run the Adobe Flash Player installer and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the upgrade.
  6. 6. Verify the new version is installed correctly by checking the Flash Player version again.
Caveat Adobe Flash Player reached end of life on December 31, 2020. Consider migrating away from Flash-based content as Adobe no longer provides security updates.

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

Fix this in Flash Player Desktop Runtime 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
Get it fixed fast

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,696.

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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-2016-7892 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