Adobe Flash Player and AIR Use-After-Free Vulnerability
Adobe · Flash Player and AIR
The vulnerability is a use-after-free flaw in Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR (including the AIR SDK and SDK & Compiler), affecting the Flash Player and AIR component handling of freed memory. An attacker can execute arbitrary code by exploiting this flaw via unspecified vectors over the network, and the attack requires user interaction (UI:R) but no privileges or authentication.
Use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.329 and 19.x and 20.x before 20.0.0.306 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.569 on Linux, Adobe AIR before 20.0.0.260, Adobe AIR SDK before 20.0.0.260, and Adobe AIR SDK & Compiler before 20.0.0.260 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-0973, CVE-2016-0974, CVE-2016-0975, CVE-2016-0982, and CVE-2016-0983.
- Exploited
- Yes, in CISA KEV
- Reports
- 0
- Tactics
- 2/15
How an attack unfolds
Based on MITRE ATT&CKA public catalogue of the techniques attackers use, maintained by MITRE. Patchfirst uses it to describe what attackers do with a vulnerability. mappings. Select a step to see the evidence.How attackers get in
What they do
Exploitation timelineDated milestones for a CVE: when it was disclosed, when exploit code became public, when exploitation was confirmed, and when threat reports named it.
First seen exploited 30 days before it was disclosed. Public exploit code (Exploit-DB) appeared 7 days after disclosure.
- First seen exploitedVulnCheck KEV evidence30 days before
- Disclosedday 0
- Public exploit codeExploit-DB+7 days
- Added to CISA KEVEU database agrees+6 yrs
CISA KEV listing is when exploitation was confirmed, not necessarily the first attack.
MITRE ATT&CKA public catalogue of the techniques attackers use, maintained by MITRE. Patchfirst uses it to describe what attackers do with a vulnerability. techniques
2 TechniqueOne specific attacker behaviour in MITRE ATT&CK, such as T1190 “Exploit Public-Facing Application”. IDs with a dot, like T1059.004, are sub-techniques., grouped by TacticThe attacker’s goal at a stage of an attack in MITRE ATT&CK, such as Initial Access or Persistence. Each technique belongs to one or more tactics. in kill-chain order 2ExecutionTA0002
This use-after-free vulnerability is exploited by having the user open a maliciously-crafted file. This CVE was observed to be exploited by the threat actor known as BlackOasis.
Command and ControlTA0011
This use-after-free vulnerability is exploited by having the user open a maliciously-crafted file. This CVE was observed to be exploited by the threat actor known as BlackOasis. The threat actor then installs command and control tools.
Detection
0 rules for this CVE · 126 general rules for its techniquesRules for this CVE
0Sigma ruleAn open, vendor-neutral detection rule for log data. Security teams convert Sigma rules into searches for their own SIEM. that reference CVE-2016-0984 directly.CVE-specific rules are not available in this build. Search SigmaHQ ↗
General rules for this CVE’s techniques
These detect the technique in general, not this specific vulnerability.
Malicious FileT1204.00239 general rules
- Droppers Exploiting CVE-2017-11882criticalstable
- Ursnif Malware C2 URL Patterncriticalstable
- Exploit for CVE-2017-8759criticaltest
- Potential Maze Ransomware Activitycriticaltest
- File With Uncommon Extension Created By An Office Applicationhightest
- Flash Player Update from Suspicious Locationhightest
- GAC DLL Loaded Via Office Applicationshightest
- HackTool - LittleCorporal Generated Maldoc Injectionhightest
Ingress Tool TransferT110587 general rules
- Greenbug Espionage Group Indicatorscriticaltest
- Pandemic Registry Keycriticaltest
- Curl Download And Execute Combinationhightest
- File Download And Execution Via IEExec.EXEhightest
- File Download From IP Based URL Via CertOC.EXEhightest
- File Download Using Notepad++ GUP Utilityhightest
- File Download Via Bitsadmin To A Suspicious Target Folderhightest
- File Download Via Windows Defender MpCmpRun.EXEhightest
Sigma rules © SigmaHQ, Detection Rule License 1.1; linked, not reproduced.
What security researchers reported
Not named in any threat report yetAlso mentioned in 50 community threat pulses (AlienVault OTX)
Weaker evidencePulses are indicator collections that anyone can publish. A mention is not confirmation of exploitation.
- Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 29, 202628 Oct 2026
- Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 28, 202627 Oct 2026
- Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 27, 202626 Oct 2026
- Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 24, 202623 Oct 2026
- Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 23, 202622 Oct 2026
- Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 22, 202621 Oct 2026
- 44 more on OTX