{"id":"CVE-2018-4878","published":"2018-02-06T21:29:00Z","modified":"2026-06-17T01:59:12Z","title":"Adobe Flash Player Use-After-Free Vulnerability","vendor":"Adobe","product":"Flash Player","tier":"core","eol":{"product":"Adobe Flash Player","since":"2020-12-31","note":"No security updates; remove it."},"description":{"text":"A use-after-free vulnerability was discovered in Adobe Flash Player before 28.0.0.161. This vulnerability occurs due to a dangling pointer in the Primetime SDK related to media player handling of listener objects. A successful attack can lead to arbitrary code execution. This was exploited in the wild in January and February 2018.","provenance":"source","from":"NVD"},"summary":{"text":"Adobe Flash Player before 28.0.0.161 contains a use-after-free flaw caused by a dangling pointer in the Primetime SDK, related to how the media player handles listener objects. An attacker who can get a user to interact with malicious content, such as opening a crafted file or page, can achieve arbitrary code execution, with no authentication required and local access as the prerequisite.","provenance":"ai","model":"claude-haiku-5-5","generatedAt":"2026-10-23T06:55:47Z"},"cvss":{"score":7.8,"severity":"HIGH","version":"3.1","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","provenance":"source","from":"NVD"},"epss":{"score":0.9028,"percentile":0.99797,"date":"2026-10-28","provenance":"source"},"kev":{"dateAdded":"2021-11-03","dueDate":"2022-05-03","ransomware":true,"requiredAction":"The impacted product is end-of-life and should be disconnected if still in use.","notes":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-4878","provenance":"source"},"vulncheckKev":{"dateAdded":"2018-02-03","exploitedFirstSeen":"2018-02-03","ransomware":true,"evidence":[{"url":"https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2018/02/attacks-leveraging-adobe-zero-day.html","date":"2018-02-03"},{"url":"https://www2.fireeye.com/rs/848-DID-242/images/rpt_APT37.pdf","date":"2018-02-04"},{"url":"https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lkNJ0uQwbeC1ZTRrxdtuPLCIl7mlUreoKfSIgajnSyY/edit","date":"2018-02-06"},{"url":"https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-4878","date":"2018-02-06"},{"url":"https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2018/02/apt37-overlooked-north-korean-actor.html","date":"2018-02-20"},{"url":"https://www.mcafee.com/blogs/other-blogs/mcafee-labs/hidden-cobra-targets-turkish-financial-sector-new-bankshot-implant/","date":"2018-03-08"},{"url":"https://blog.malwarebytes.com/threat-analysis/2018/04/magnitude-exploit-kit-switches-gandcrab-ransomware/","date":"2018-04-17"},{"url":"https://www.recordedfuture.com/blog/top-vulnerabilities-2018","date":"2019-03-19"},{"url":"https://www.africacybersecurityconference.com/document/CrowdStrike_GTR_2019.pdf","date":"2019-03-28"},{"url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20220227045141/https://risksense.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/RiskSense-Spotlight-Report-Ransomware.pdf","date":"2019-09-01"}],"evidenceTotal":21,"provenance":"source"},"exploited":true,"otx":{"pulseCount":50,"pulses":[{"name":"Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 29, 2026","url":"https://otx.alienvault.com/pulse/6ae20c1db17e7057ae7d9ad1","created":"2026-10-28"},{"name":"Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 28, 2026","url":"https://otx.alienvault.com/pulse/6ae0ba7e0e2a97ff7b218819","created":"2026-10-27"},{"name":"Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 27, 2026","url":"https://otx.alienvault.com/pulse/6adf68b85c3e852f3c111d18","created":"2026-10-26"},{"name":"Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 24, 2026","url":"https://otx.alienvault.com/pulse/6adb740e397c3ad4799aa4cd","created":"2026-10-23"},{"name":"Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 23, 2026","url":"https://otx.alienvault.com/pulse/6ada236fcfba2dfa730ea482","created":"2026-10-22"},{"name":"Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 22, 2026","url":"https://otx.alienvault.com/pulse/6ad8d33a077cbb5cab524d80","created":"2026-10-21"},{"name":"Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 21, 2026","url":"https://otx.alienvault.com/pulse/6ad78130c4d1ac2be83a8b6d","created":"2026-10-20"},{"name":"Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 20, 2026","url":"https://otx.alienvault.com/pulse/6ad62f63c24a405a3423cc13","created":"2026-10-19"},{"name":"Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 19, 2026","url":"https://otx.alienvault.com/pulse/6ad4dda174e5797d0bd238b7","created":"2026-10-18"},{"name":"Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 18, 2026","url":"https://otx.alienvault.com/pulse/6ad38c22e1848f8189d1c121","created":"2026-10-17"}],"provenance":"machine"},"cwes":[{"id":"CWE-416","name":"Use After Free"}],"references":[{"url":"http://blog.talosintelligence.com/2018/02/group-123-goes-wild.html","tags":["Technical Description","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/102893","tags":["Broken Link"]},{"url":"http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1040318","tags":["Broken Link"]},{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:0285","tags":["Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://blog.morphisec.com/flash-exploit-cve-2018-4878-spotted-in-the-wild-massive-malspam-campaign","tags":["Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://github.com/InQuest/malware-samples/tree/master/CVE-2018-4878-Adobe-Flash-DRM-UAF-0day","tags":["Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://github.com/vysec/CVE-2018-4878","tags":["Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb18-03.html","tags":["Vendor Advisory"]},{"url":"https://securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/hackers-bypassed-adobe-flash-protection-mechanism/","tags":["Exploit","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://threatpost.com/adobe-flash-player-zero-day-spotted-in-the-wild/129742/","tags":["Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/adobe-flash-vulnerability-reappears-in-malicious-word-files/d/d-id/1331139","tags":["Press/Media Coverage","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44412/","tags":["Exploit","Third Party Advisory","VDB Entry"]},{"url":"https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2018/02/attacks-leveraging-adobe-zero-day.html","tags":["Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/vulnerabilities-and-exploits/north-korean-hackers-allegedly-exploit-adobe-flash-player-vulnerability-cve-2018-4878-against-south-korean-targets","tags":["Technical Description","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"http://blog.talosintelligence.com/2018/02/group-123-goes-wild.html","tags":["Technical Description","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/102893","tags":["Broken Link"]},{"url":"http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1040318","tags":["Broken Link"]},{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:0285","tags":["Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://blog.morphisec.com/flash-exploit-cve-2018-4878-spotted-in-the-wild-massive-malspam-campaign","tags":["Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://github.com/InQuest/malware-samples/tree/master/CVE-2018-4878-Adobe-Flash-DRM-UAF-0day","tags":["Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://github.com/vysec/CVE-2018-4878","tags":["Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb18-03.html","tags":["Vendor Advisory"]},{"url":"https://securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/hackers-bypassed-adobe-flash-protection-mechanism/","tags":["Exploit","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://threatpost.com/adobe-flash-player-zero-day-spotted-in-the-wild/129742/","tags":["Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/adobe-flash-vulnerability-reappears-in-malicious-word-files/d/d-id/1331139","tags":["Press/Media Coverage","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44412/","tags":["Exploit","Third Party Advisory","VDB Entry"]},{"url":"https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2018/02/attacks-leveraging-adobe-zero-day.html","tags":["Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/vulnerabilities-and-exploits/north-korean-hackers-allegedly-exploit-adobe-flash-player-vulnerability-cve-2018-4878-against-south-korean-targets","tags":["Technical Description","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://github.com/cisagov/vulnrichment/issues/196","tags":["Issue Tracking"]},{"url":"https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2018-4878","tags":["Third Party Advisory","US Government Resource"]}],"techniques":[{"id":"T1204.002","name":"Malicious File","tactics":["execution"],"provenance":"source","basis":"ctid-kev","bases":["ctid-kev"],"basisDetail":"CTID Mappings Explorer KEV 07/28/2025 (ATT&CK 16.1); capability: Use After Free","mappingType":"exploitation_technique","evidence":[],"comment":"The exploitation technique for this vulnerability is based on a vulnerability in Client software.  In the wild, this was seen to be exploited by a malicious excel file.\n\nThe observed goals of this exploit from Group 123 are remote access and data exfiltration.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"T1219","name":"Remote Access Tools","tactics":["command-and-control"],"provenance":"source","basis":"ctid-kev","bases":["ctid-kev"],"basisDetail":"CTID Mappings Explorer KEV 07/28/2025 (ATT&CK 16.1); capability: Use After Free","mappingType":"primary_impact","evidence":[],"comment":"The exploitation technique for this vulnerability is based on a vulnerability in Client software.  In the wild, this was seen to be exploited by a malicious excel file.\n\nThe observed goals of this exploit from Group 123 are remote access and data exfiltration.\n\nInstallation of the remote access software could allow for a number of different secondary impacts. See the MITRE ATT&CK reference on the DOGCALL software for more information.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"T1041","name":"Exfiltration Over C2 Channel","tactics":["exfiltration"],"provenance":"source","basis":"ctid-kev","bases":["ctid-kev"],"basisDetail":"CTID Mappings Explorer KEV 07/28/2025 (ATT&CK 16.1); capability: Use After Free","mappingType":"secondary_impact","evidence":[],"comment":"The exploitation technique for this vulnerability is based on a vulnerability in Client software.  In the wild, this was seen to be exploited by a malicious excel file.\n\nThe observed goals of this exploit from Group 123 are remote access and data exfiltration.","confidence":"high"}],"reports":[{"id":"SRC-ff264eaf7a9f69a48903","title":"The Overlooked North Korean Actor","publisher":"services.google.com","url":"https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/apt37-reaper-the-overlooked-north-korean-actor.pdf","date":null,"mentions":[{"quote":"vulnerability (CVE-2018-4878) by a suspected North Korean cyber espionage group","start":459,"end":538},{"quote":"CVE-2018-4878 (Zero-day vulnerability)","start":7219,"end":7257},{"quote":"CVE-2018-4878, to distribute DOGCALL malware to","start":8266,"end":8313}]}],"affected":[],"advisories":[],"euvd":{"id":"EUVD-2018-16663","url":"https://euvd.enisa.europa.eu/vulnerability/EUVD-2018-16663","exploited":true,"exploitedSince":"2021-11-03","provenance":"source"},"exploits":[{"id":44412,"url":"https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44412","title":"Adobe Flash < 28.0.0.161 - Use-After-Free","type":"remote","platform":"multiple","date":"2018-04-06","verified":false,"provenance":"source"},{"id":44744,"url":"https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44744","title":"Flash ActiveX 28.0.0.137 - Code Execution (1)","type":"local","platform":"windows","date":"2016-02-16","verified":false,"provenance":"source"},{"id":44745,"url":"https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44745","title":"Flash ActiveX 28.0.0.137 - Code Execution (2)","type":"local","platform":"windows","date":"2016-02-13","verified":false,"provenance":"source"}],"exploitSources":{"exploitdb":{"count":3,"earliest":"2016-02-13"},"pocGithub":{"count":7,"skipped":3,"earliest":"2018-01-20","earliestUrl":"https://github.com/ydl555/CVE-2018-4878-","repos":[{"name":"vysecurity/CVE-2018-4878","url":"https://github.com/vysecurity/CVE-2018-4878","stars":86,"created":"2018-02-10"},{"name":"SyFi/CVE-2018-4878","url":"https://github.com/SyFi/CVE-2018-4878","stars":7,"created":"2018-04-04"},{"name":"B0fH/CVE-2018-4878","url":"https://github.com/B0fH/CVE-2018-4878","stars":2,"created":"2018-10-17"},{"name":"ydl555/CVE-2018-4878-","url":"https://github.com/ydl555/CVE-2018-4878-","stars":1,"created":"2018-01-20"},{"name":"HuanWoWeiLan/SoftwareSystemSecurity-2019","url":"https://github.com/HuanWoWeiLan/SoftwareSystemSecurity-2019","stars":1,"created":"2019-07-17"}]},"first":{"date":"2016-02-13","source":"Exploit-DB","url":"https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44745"},"provenance":"source"},"exploitRefs":["https://securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/hackers-bypassed-adobe-flash-protection-mechanism/","https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44412/"],"flow":[{"stage":"exploitation","techniques":["T1204.002"],"provenance":"source"},{"stage":"primary","techniques":["T1219"],"provenance":"source"},{"stage":"secondary","techniques":["T1041"],"provenance":"source"}],"timeline":[{"date":"2016-02-13","kind":"exploit-public","label":"First public exploit: Exploit-DB (EDB-44745); later: PoC-in-GitHub 2018-01-20","url":"https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44745","provenance":"source"},{"date":"2018-02-03","kind":"exploited-reported","label":"Exploitation first reported (VulnCheck KEV evidence)","url":"https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2018/02/attacks-leveraging-adobe-zero-day.html","provenance":"source"},{"date":"2018-02-06","kind":"published","label":"Published (NVD)","url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-4878","provenance":"source"},{"date":"2021-11-03","kind":"kev","label":"Added to CISA KEV (known ransomware use)","url":"https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","provenance":"source"},{"date":"2021-11-03","kind":"euvd-exploited","label":"ENISA EUVD: exploited","url":"https://euvd.enisa.europa.eu/vulnerability/EUVD-2018-16663","provenance":"source"}],"speed":{"daysToPublicExploit":null,"firstExploitFrom":"Exploit-DB","daysToKev":1366},"priority":{"score":67.3,"factors":[{"name":"In a KEV catalog","points":35.0,"detail":"listed in CISA KEV and VulnCheck KEV"},{"name":"Recent KEV listing","points":0.0,"detail":"added 3190 days ago"},{"name":"Known ransomware use","points":10.0,"detail":"CISA KEV and VulnCheck KEV: Known"},{"name":"EPSS percentile","points":19.96,"detail":"percentile 0.9980"},{"name":"Named in threat reports","points":3.87,"detail":"1 report"},{"name":"Public exploit code","points":5.0,"detail":"2 NVD references tagged Exploit; 3 Exploit-DB entries; 7 PoC-in-GitHub repos"},{"name":"Mentioned in OTX pulses","points":3.0,"detail":"50 pulses"},{"name":"CVSS severity","points":5.46,"detail":"base score 7.8"},{"name":"End-of-life product","points":-15.0,"detail":"No patches exist; remove or isolate it"}]},"lineage":{"familyId":"fam-class-adobe-flash-player-cwe-416"}}