CVE-2016-0964 in Flash Player
Summary
by MITRE • 01/26/2023
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 allow attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-0965, CVE-2016-0966, CVE-2016-0967, CVE-2016-0968, CVE-2016-0969, CVE-2016-0970, CVE-2016-0972, CVE-2016-0976, CVE-2016-0977, CVE-2016-0978, CVE-2016-0979, CVE-2016-0980, and CVE-2016-0981.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/15/2024
Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR runtime environments suffered from a critical memory corruption vulnerability that enabled remote code execution attacks. This vulnerability affected multiple product versions across different operating systems including Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms. The flaw manifested as an unspecified vector that could be exploited by attackers to gain arbitrary code execution privileges or cause system denial of service conditions. Security researchers identified this as a distinct vulnerability from a series of related issues affecting the same software ecosystem, emphasizing the complexity of the underlying memory management flaws.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from improper memory handling within the Flash Player and AIR runtime environments, creating opportunities for attackers to manipulate memory structures through crafted malicious content. Memory corruption vulnerabilities typically arise when software fails to properly validate input data or manage allocated memory regions, allowing attackers to overwrite critical memory locations or execute arbitrary code within the context of the running application. This particular flaw demonstrated the inherent risks associated with legacy multimedia frameworks that continue to process untrusted content without adequate memory protection mechanisms.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability posed significant risks to enterprise environments where Flash Player remained widely deployed despite its declining support status. The attack surface extended across multiple platforms and versions, making it particularly dangerous for organizations with heterogeneous computing environments. Security professionals noted that exploitation of this vulnerability could result in complete system compromise, as attackers could leverage the memory corruption to execute malicious payloads with elevated privileges. The impact was compounded by the fact that many organizations continued to support older Flash Player versions, creating persistent attack vectors.
The vulnerability's classification aligns with common weakness enumerations such as CWE-125, which describes out-of-bounds read conditions, and CWE-787, which covers out-of-bounds write operations. These classifications reflect the fundamental memory management issues that enabled the exploitation. The attack patterns associated with this vulnerability map to ATT&CK techniques including T1059 for command and scripting interpreter usage and T1068 for exploit for privilege escalation. Organizations implementing security controls should consider network segmentation, application whitelisting, and regular patch management to mitigate exposure to similar memory corruption vulnerabilities.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability required immediate patch deployment across all affected Adobe Flash Player and AIR installations. Organizations needed to prioritize updating to the latest supported versions that contained fixes for the memory corruption issues. Additional defensive measures included implementing content filtering solutions, disabling Flash Player in web browsers, and monitoring network traffic for exploitation attempts. Security teams should have also considered implementing endpoint detection and response solutions to identify potential exploitation attempts and prevent successful attacks. The incident underscored the importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches and the risks associated with supporting legacy software components that may contain unpatched vulnerabilities.