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Fencer Intel
high 7.8

CVE-2018-4878 kev+ ransomware in the critical feed json

A use-after-free vulnerability was discovered in Adobe Flash Player before 28.0.0.161.

published 2018-02-06 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-16663

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Exploited
added 2021-11-03, used in ransomware
epss
90.3%
EPSS 90.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 99.8%
public exploits
3
Exploit-DB

Summary

A use-after-free vulnerability was discovered in Adobe Flash Player before 28.0.0.161. This vulnerability occurs due to a dangling pointer in the Primetime SDK related to media player handling of listener objects. A successful attack can lead to arbitrary code execution. This was exploited in the wild in January and February 2018.

Patch / fix

cisa required action The impacted product is end-of-life and should be disconnected if still in use.

  • adobe flash_player 28.0.0.161
  • flashplugin-nonfree Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 28.0.0.161ubuntu0.14.04.1
  • flashplugin-nonfree Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 28.0.0.161ubuntu0.16.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-4878

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • flash-plugin RHEL 6 EXTRAS 28.0.0.161-1.el6_9

red hat advisories RHSA-2018:0285

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2018-4878 updated cvss 8.8

flash-plugin: use-after-free causing remote code execution (APSB18-03)

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Supplementary (v. 6) flash-plugin 28.0.0.161-1.el6_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Supplementary (v. 6) flash-plugin 28.0.0.161-1.el6_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Supplementary (v. 6) flash-plugin 28.0.0.161-1.el6_9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:0285

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Timeline

  1. First public exploit (EDB-44745)
  2. 0-day patched (Project Zero)
  3. Published
  4. Added to CISA KEV
  5. CISA patch deadline
  6. CISA SSVC: exploitation active

Known exploited

Added
5 y ago
Patch by
2022-05-03 (4 y ago)
Ransomware
Known to be used in ransomware campaigns
Required action
The impacted product is end-of-life and should be disconnected if still in use.
Vendor, product
Adobe, Flash Player
CISA name
Adobe Flash Player Use-After-Free Vulnerability

Zero-day

Detected in real attacks while still unknown to the vendor and the public, per Google Project Zero's 0day In-the-Wild tracker.

Patched
2018-02-06
Details
project zero tracker

ATT&CK techniques

How it is exploited and what it leads to, in MITRE ATT&CK terms.

  • T1204.002 Malicious File exploitation
  • T1219 Remote Access Software primary impact
  • T1041 Exfiltration Over C2 Channel secondary impact

kev release 2025-07-28, att&ck v16.1. KEV to ATT&CK mappings by the MITRE Center for Threat-Informed Defense (Mappings Explorer, Apache-2.0). © 2026 The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation. Terms of use

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Active, exploited in the wild
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
11 mo ago

Exploit prediction

90.28% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.8% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-44745 Flash ActiveX 28.0.0.137 - Code Execution (2) local, 2016-02-13
  • EDB-44744 Flash ActiveX 28.0.0.137 - Code Execution (1) local, 2016-02-16
  • EDB-44412 Adobe Flash < 28.0.0.161 - Use-After-Free remote, 2018-04-06
  • securingtomorrow.mcafee.com https://securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/hackers-bypassed-adobe-flash-protection-mechanism/ referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Affected products

  • n/a Adobe Flash Player before 28.0.0.161

Classification

Weakness

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.