CVE-2014-0515 in Flash Player
Summary
by MITRE
Buffer overflow in Adobe Flash Player before 11.7.700.279 and 11.8.x through 13.0.x before 13.0.0.206 on Windows and OS X, and before 11.2.202.356 on Linux, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors, as exploited in the wild in April 2014.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/12/2026
The CVE-2014-0515 vulnerability represents a critical buffer overflow flaw in Adobe Flash Player that affected multiple platform versions across Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. This vulnerability emerged as a significant threat in April 2014 when it began being actively exploited in the wild, demonstrating the severe impact such flaws can have on enterprise and individual security postures. The affected versions spanned across several major release lines including Flash Player 11.7.700.279 and earlier, 11.8.x through 13.0.x versions prior to 13.0.0.206, and Linux versions before 11.2.202.356, indicating a broad attack surface that required comprehensive patching across multiple platforms.
The technical nature of this buffer overflow vulnerability stems from improper bounds checking within Flash Player's processing of specially crafted content. When Flash Player encounters maliciously constructed multimedia content or web pages containing crafted data structures, the application fails to properly validate input lengths before writing data to memory buffers. This allows attackers to overwrite adjacent memory locations, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution. The vulnerability's exploitation occurs through unspecified vectors that typically involve web-based attacks where users visit compromised websites or open malicious Flash content, making it particularly dangerous in enterprise environments where users frequently access untrusted web content.
The operational impact of CVE-2014-0515 extends beyond immediate exploitation capabilities to encompass significant risk to enterprise security infrastructure. Organizations relying on Flash Player for business applications, web-based training modules, or multimedia content distribution faced heightened exposure to targeted attacks that could compromise entire networks through a single vulnerable endpoint. The vulnerability's presence in multiple platform versions meant that security teams had to coordinate patching efforts across diverse operating systems, complicating the remediation process and increasing the window of exposure. This attack vector aligns with common tactics used in advanced persistent threat campaigns where attackers leverage known vulnerabilities in widely deployed software to establish initial access footholds.
Security professionals should note that this vulnerability maps to CWE-121, which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions where insufficient bounds checking allows attackers to overwrite stack data structures. The attack pattern associated with CVE-2014-0515 follows typical TTPs from the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the initial access and execution phases, where adversaries leverage software vulnerabilities to gain system access. Organizations should prioritize immediate patch deployment and consider implementing network-based controls such as web application firewalls and content filtering to prevent exploitation attempts. The vulnerability's exploitation in the wild during April 2014 demonstrated the importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches and implementing defense-in-depth strategies to protect against zero-day exploits that target widely used software components.