CVE-2016-4183 in Flash Player
Summary
by MITRE • 01/25/2023
Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.366 and 19.x through 22.x before 22.0.0.209 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.632 on Linux allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-4172, CVE-2016-4175, CVE-2016-4179, CVE-2016-4180, CVE-2016-4181, CVE-2016-4182, CVE-2016-4184, CVE-2016-4185, CVE-2016-4186, CVE-2016-4187, CVE-2016-4188, CVE-2016-4189, CVE-2016-4190, CVE-2016-4217, CVE-2016-4218, CVE-2016-4219, CVE-2016-4220, CVE-2016-4221, CVE-2016-4233, CVE-2016-4234, CVE-2016-4235, CVE-2016-4236, CVE-2016-4237, CVE-2016-4238, CVE-2016-4239, CVE-2016-4240, CVE-2016-4241, CVE-2016-4242, CVE-2016-4243, CVE-2016-4244, CVE-2016-4245, and CVE-2016-4246.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/25/2023
Adobe Flash Player versions prior to 18.0.0.366 and 19.x through 22.x before 22.0.0.209 on Windows and OS X platforms, along with versions before 11.2.202.632 on Linux systems, contained a critical memory corruption vulnerability that enabled remote code execution and denial of service attacks. This vulnerability represented a distinct threat vector from several other CVEs in the same year, specifically excluding CVE-2016-4172 through CVE-2016-4246, which suggests it involved different exploitation techniques or memory handling mechanisms within the Flash runtime environment. The unspecified attack vectors indicate that the memory corruption could be triggered through various means including malformed SWF files, embedded multimedia content, or manipulated web page elements that Flash Player processes during runtime execution.
The technical flaw manifested as a memory corruption issue that occurred within Flash Player's handling of multimedia content and scripting operations, particularly when processing complex or malformed input data structures. This type of vulnerability typically arises from insufficient bounds checking, improper memory deallocation, or flawed buffer management within the application's core components. The memory corruption could potentially be exploited by attackers to overwrite critical memory locations, manipulate program execution flow, or inject malicious code into the target system. Such vulnerabilities fall under the CWE-121 category of "Stack-based Buffer Overflow" and align with ATT&CK techniques involving code injection and privilege escalation through software exploitation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability was severe as it allowed attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected systems with the privileges of the Flash Player process, which typically ran with user-level permissions but could potentially be leveraged for privilege escalation. The vulnerability could also be used to cause denial of service conditions by corrupting memory structures and crashing the Flash Player application or potentially the entire system. This made the vulnerability particularly dangerous in enterprise environments where Flash Player was commonly used for multimedia content delivery, web applications, and interactive media experiences. The widespread adoption of Flash Player across different platforms and the frequent use of Flash-based content on websites made this vulnerability highly attractive to threat actors seeking to compromise large numbers of systems.
Organizations and users were strongly advised to immediately update to patched versions of Adobe Flash Player to mitigate this risk. The patching process required careful coordination as Flash Player was widely deployed across enterprise networks, and updates needed to be tested to ensure compatibility with existing applications and websites. System administrators should have implemented network monitoring to detect potential exploitation attempts and deployed application whitelisting policies to restrict Flash Player execution to trusted environments only. Additionally, users were encouraged to disable Flash Player in their browsers or remove it entirely from their systems to eliminate the attack surface. Security teams should have conducted vulnerability assessments to identify systems running vulnerable versions and prioritized remediation efforts based on risk exposure and system criticality. The vulnerability highlighted the importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches and implementing defense-in-depth strategies to protect against zero-day exploits in widely used software components.