Enterprise Linux DesktopOperating system · Redhat

CVE-2017-11281

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-12-01
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 26.0.0.151 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Public exploit 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
Adobe Flash Player has an exploitable memory corruption vulnerability in the text handling function. Successful exploitation could lead to arbitrary code execution. This affects 26.0.0.151 and earlier.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-119

The program reads or writes outside the bounds of an allocated buffer, corrupting adjacent memory. With crafted input an attacker can overwrite control data and, with effort, redirect execution to their own code. Remediation ranges from bounds checking and safe library functions to compiler mitigations, usually alongside a careful audit of the surrounding code.

General guidance for the memory buffer bounds error class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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:= 6.0
Enterprise Linux ServerOperating system
Affected:= 6.0
Enterprise Linux WorkstationOperating system
Affected:= 6.0
Flash PlayerApplication
Affected:<= 26.0.0.151

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:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 26.0.0.151
Vendor patch helpx.adobe.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Remove/uninstall Flash Player (EOL product) - if upgrade required, Adobe Flash Player 26.0.0.153 or later via official Adobe channels

  1. 1. Check if Adobe Flash Player is installed on the system
  2. 2. Since Adobe Flash Player reached end-of-life on December 31, 2020, the recommended action is to uninstall/remove Flash Player entirely rather than upgrade
  3. 3. On Windows: Use Control Panel > Programs and Features to uninstall Adobe Flash Player
  4. 4. On Linux: Remove flash-plugin package via package manager (e.g., yum remove flash-plugin or apt remove flashplugin-installer)
  5. 5. Remove any remaining Flash Player directories and files (e.g., /usr/lib/flash-plugin/, ~/.macromedia/)
  6. 6. If Flash Player is required for legacy applications, apply Adobe's official patch from APSB17-28 which fixes this vulnerability in version 26.0.0.153 or later
  7. 7. Ensure the system has the latest Adobe Flash Player security updates if continued use is absolutely necessary
Caveat Adobe Flash Player is end-of-life; continuing to use it poses ongoing security risks; consider migrating away from Flash-based content

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

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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-11281 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

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-2017-11281 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