CVE-2015-5584 in Flash Player
Summary
by MITRE
Use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.241 and 19.x before 19.0.0.185 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.521 on Linux, Adobe AIR before 19.0.0.190, Adobe AIR SDK before 19.0.0.190, and Adobe AIR SDK & Compiler before 19.0.0.190 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2015-5570, CVE-2015-5574, CVE-2015-5581, and CVE-2015-6682.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/18/2022
The CVE-2015-5584 vulnerability represents a critical use-after-free flaw in Adobe Flash Player and AIR runtime environments that affected multiple operating systems and versions. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-416 category of use-after-free conditions, where memory that has been freed is still accessed by the application, creating potential exploitation opportunities for malicious actors. The flaw exists in Flash Player versions prior to 18.0.0.241 and 19.x before 19.0.0.185 on Windows and OS X platforms, while Linux versions were affected until 11.2.202.521, with Adobe AIR and SDK versions requiring patching up to 19.0.0.190 across all platforms.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves memory management errors within the Flash Player's handling of object references and memory allocation patterns. When certain Flash content is processed, the application frees memory associated with specific objects but continues to reference that memory location, potentially allowing attackers to manipulate the freed memory through crafted malicious content. This particular vulnerability differs from several other related CVEs including CVE-2015-5570, CVE-2015-5574, CVE-2015-5581, and CVE-2015-6682, indicating distinct code paths and exploitation methods. The unspecified vectors suggest that the attack surface could be broad, potentially involving multiple ways to trigger the memory corruption condition through various Flash content manipulation techniques.
The operational impact of CVE-2015-5584 is severe and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1203 for exploitation for privilege escalation and T1059 for command and scripting interpreter execution. Attackers could leverage this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the Flash Player process, which typically runs with user-level permissions but could potentially be escalated. The vulnerability's presence in both Flash Player and AIR environments created widespread exposure across web applications and desktop software that relied on Adobe's runtime environments. The cross-platform nature of the vulnerability meant that organizations needed to implement patch management across multiple operating systems and software variants, complicating remediation efforts.
Organizations should have prioritized immediate patch deployment for all affected versions of Adobe Flash Player, AIR, and SDK components. The mitigation strategy should have included disabling Flash Player in web browsers where possible, implementing network-based protections such as web application firewalls, and monitoring for exploitation attempts. Security teams needed to understand that this vulnerability could be exploited through drive-by downloads from compromised websites, making network-level detection and prevention critical. The vulnerability's classification as a use-after-free error aligns with common exploitation patterns in memory corruption vulnerabilities, where attackers often leverage controlled memory layout to achieve code execution, making proper memory management and validation essential for preventing such attacks.