CVE-2014-0588 in Flash Player
Summary
by MITRE
Use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player before 13.0.0.252 and 14.x and 15.x before 15.0.0.223 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.418 on Linux, Adobe AIR before 15.0.0.356, Adobe AIR SDK before 15.0.0.356, and Adobe AIR SDK & Compiler before 15.0.0.356 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2014-0573 and CVE-2014-8438.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/24/2022
The CVE-2014-0588 vulnerability represents a critical use-after-free flaw in Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR platforms that emerged during a period when these technologies were extensively deployed across enterprise and consumer environments. This vulnerability affects multiple versions of Adobe Flash Player including versions prior to 13.0.0.252 for Windows and OS X, and versions before 11.2.202.418 for Linux, alongside various Adobe AIR versions and SDKs. The flaw stems from improper memory management practices where the application continues to reference memory locations that have already been freed, creating opportunities for malicious code execution.
The technical nature of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-416, which specifically addresses use-after-free conditions in software development. This memory safety issue occurs when a program attempts to access memory that has been deallocated, potentially allowing attackers to manipulate the freed memory location to inject and execute malicious code. The vulnerability's exploitation vector remains unspecified in the CVE description, suggesting that attackers could leverage various attack surfaces within the Flash Player or AIR runtime environment, including malformed content in web pages or embedded media files that trigger the memory management error during processing.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to organizations relying on Flash-based applications, as it enables remote code execution without requiring user interaction in many scenarios. The impact extends across multiple operating systems including Windows, OS X, and Linux, making it particularly dangerous for enterprise environments where diverse platforms coexist. Attackers could exploit this vulnerability to install malware, establish backdoors, or perform privilege escalation attacks, potentially compromising entire systems or network infrastructures. The vulnerability's classification as distinct from CVE-2014-0573 and CVE-2014-8438 indicates that it represents a separate code path or memory management error within the Adobe runtime components.
The remediation strategy for CVE-2014-0588 requires immediate patch deployment across all affected Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR installations. Organizations should prioritize updating to the latest versions that contain memory management fixes, specifically targeting Adobe Flash Player versions 13.0.0.252 and 14.x, 15.x versions 15.0.0.223 and later, and Adobe AIR versions 15.0.0.356 and later. Security teams should implement network segmentation and content filtering to prevent access to potentially malicious Flash content while patches are deployed. Additionally, organizations should consider disabling Flash Player entirely in environments where it is not strictly required, as part of a defense-in-depth strategy that aligns with ATT&CK framework techniques related to privilege escalation and persistence through malicious software execution. The vulnerability highlights the importance of regular security updates and the risks associated with legacy software components that continue to be widely deployed despite known security risks.