CVE-2015-7633

Vulnerability

CVE-2015-7633 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player that can lead to arbitrary code execution or a denial of service. The affected versions are Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.252 and 19.x before 19.0.0.207 on Windows and OS X, and before 11.2.202.535 on Linux, as well as Adobe AIR before 19.0.0.213, Adobe AIR SDK before 19.0.0.213, and Adobe AIR SDK & Compiler before 19.0.0.213 [1]. The flaw is triggered via unspecified vectors, requiring that a user loads a specially crafted SWF file [2].

Exploitation

An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by convincing a victim to open a malicious SWF file, typically by hosting it on a website or embedding it in an email or other document. No special authentication or network position beyond delivering the SWF is required – the victim’s browser or application that handles Flash content will automatically parse the malicious file, leading to memory corruption [2].

Impact

Successful exploitation results in arbitrary code execution in the context of the affected user or process, or a denial of service (crash) [2]. The attacker gains full control of the victim’s system at the privilege level of the Flash process, enabling actions such as data theft, malware installation, or system disruption.

Mitigation

Adobe released updated versions to fix this vulnerability: Flash Player 18.0.0.252, 19.0.0.207, and 11.2.202.548 (Linux), along with corresponding AIR updates (19.0.0.213) [1]. Red Hat provided an updated flash-plugin package (version 11.2.202.548) for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6 Supplementary [2]. Gentoo also updated www-plugins/adobe-flash to version 11.2.202.548 [3]. Users and administrators should apply the latest updates immediately; no effective workaround is known beyond disabling or removing Flash Player [3].