CVE Intelligence
CISA KEV High Memory corruption exploit reference

CVE-2018-15982 — Adobe Flash Player Use-After-Free Vulnerability

Flash Player versions 31.0.0.153 and earlier, and 31.0.0.108 and earlier have a use after free vulnerability. Successful exploitation could lead to arbitrary code execution.

Published Jan 18, 2019 · Updated Oct 13, 2026 · Sources: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP, NIST National Vulnerability Database, GitHub Security Advisories · CNA: adobe

Who exploits it and how urgent it is

A 0–100 score combining confirmed exploitation, ransomware and APT use, public exploits, EPSS and severity.

How the score was calculated
  • Confirmed exploitation (CISA KEV)+35
  • Used in ransomware campaigns (CISA)+10
  • Public exploit/PoC (exploitdb)+8
  • EPSS 89.6% (30-day exploitation probability)+15
  • Technical severity (high)+6

The score orders the patch queue; it does not replace your asset context (internet exposure, criticality, compensating controls).

Triage

Is it exploited, how likely is exploitation, what does it touch, and how severe do the sources call it.

Exploitation
Confirmed
CISA KEV, listed Feb 15, 2022
EPSS FIRST
89.58%
ahead of 100% of scored CVEs · Oct 14, 2026
Affects
Adobe
Flash Player and 4 more
CVSS base
7.8
High · 4 source(s)
Prioritization reference: 9.8 provisional

CISA SSVC assessment CISA

Three decision points CISA publishes for the CVEs it assesses (SSVC 2.0.3). A stakeholder decision, not a severity score.

Exploitation
Active
none · proof-of-concept · active
Automatable
No
can an attacker script the kill-chain steps
Technical impact
Total
partial · total control of the vulnerable component

Remediation

Fixes and mitigations documented by the sources — linked to the original advisory.

  • Documented patch — helpx.adobe.com (NIST National Vulnerability Database)

CISA required action CISA

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

US federal deadline: Aug 15, 2022 — passed 1522 day(s) ago

First 24 hours

Ordered from the record’s own fields — exposure first, because you cannot patch what you have not found. A rule-generated starting point.

  1. Identify exposed assets running the affected vendor/product/version combinations (Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Flash Player Installer, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop…).
  2. Treat as emergency remediation: the CVE is in CISA KEV (confirmed exploitation).
  3. Apply the fixed version or the patch documented under Remediation.
  4. Exploitation requires user interaction: tighten email/web filtering and warn affected users.
  5. EPSS ahead of 100% of scored CVEs: prioritize it in the patch queue.
  6. Search available logs for exploit probes matching the vulnerability class (memory corruption), errors and authentication anomalies.

Affected scope

Vendor, product and versions as the sources word them.

VendorProductVersionsStatusSource
Adobe Flash Player ≤ 31.0.0.153 Vulnerable NIST National Vulnerability Database
Adobe Flash Player Installer ≤ 31.0.0.108 Vulnerable NIST National Vulnerability Database
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop version 6.0 Vulnerable NIST National Vulnerability Database
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server version 6.0 Vulnerable NIST National Vulnerability Database
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation version 6.0 Vulnerable NIST National Vulnerability Database

Attack characteristics

The CVSS vector, decoded. It describes the attack, not your exposure to it.

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Every base score collected

Sources score independently and may disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.

ScoreVersionSeverityExpl.ImpactScored by
7.8 CVSS 3.1 High 1.8 5.9 nvd@nist.gov via NIST National Vulnerability Database
7.8 CVSS 3.1 High 1.8 5.9 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 via NIST National Vulnerability Database
7.8 CVSS 3.1 High — — CISA-ADP via CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
9.8 CVSS 3.0 Critical — — GitHub, Inc. via GitHub Security Advisories
10.0 CVSS 2.0 High 10.0 10.0 nvd@nist.gov via NIST National Vulnerability Database
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H (score shown at the top: nvd@nist.gov)
Sources disagree significantly and the divergence is under review. Every score is kept with its origin. For prioritization we use 9.8 (GitHub, Inc. via GitHub Security Advisories) as a conservative provisional reference — not a definitive official score.

Weakness MITRE

Weakness class according to MITRE’s CWE catalog.

CWE-416 · Use After Free

Other CVEs with this weakness →

CISA KEV details CISA

CISA lists a CVE once it has evidence of exploitation against real targets.

Listed
Feb 15, 2022
Federal deadline
Aug 15, 2022
passed 1522 day(s) ago
Ransomware use
Known

CISA records ransomware use only for campaigns it has confirmed, so “Unknown” means unrecorded, not ruled out. The deadline binds US federal agencies; for everyone else it is a reference date.

Public exploits, PoCs and detection templates

Public code that demonstrates or tests the flaw raises the odds of mass exploitation — and Nuclei templates help find vulnerable assets in your environment.

Warning: public PoCs are sometimes disguised malware. Use them only for authorized testing in an isolated environment. This portal does not host exploit code — it only points to the sources.

EPSS over time FIRST

Oct 13, 2026 → Oct 14, 2026 · 2 reading(s) · max 89.58%

Detection

Read off the CVSS vector and the weakness class. Starting points, not tested rules.

  • Local/physical vector: focus on endpoint telemetry (EDR) from affected hosts.
  • Correlate service crashes/restarts with inbound traffic; repeated crashes may indicate attempts.
  • Hunt retroactively in logs from before Feb 15, 2022 (KEV listing): exploitation may have started earlier.
endpoint telemetry (EDR)crash dumps

Timeline

What happened to this CVE, newest first.

  • 2026
  • Fix documented
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • Affected products added · adobe/flash player, redhat/enterprise linux desktop, redhat/enterprise linux server, redhat/enterprise linux workstation
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • Source status changed · Published → Analyzed
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • Record published
    Oct 13, 2026
  • CVSS changed · 7.8
    Oct 13, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • Source status changed · → Published
    Oct 13, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • SSVC assessment updated
    Oct 13, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • Added to CISA KEV (detected)
    Oct 13, 2026 · CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities
  • Record created in this database
    Oct 13, 2026 · CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities
  • 2022
  • Added to CISA KEV catalog
    Feb 14, 2022 · CISA
  • 2019
  • CVE published
    Jan 18, 2019 · adobe

Source activity

Repeated readings are counted rather than listed.

  • 3× References added · Oct 13, 2026 – Oct 13, 2026
  • 1× Official description updated · Oct 13, 2026 – Oct 13, 2026

References

9 on the record

Elsewhere on this site

Adobe
every CVE for this vendor
2022-02
what else CISA listed that month
CWE-416
other pages naming this weakness

Related CVEs (same products)

  • High CVE-2025-6021 Libxml2: integer overflow in xmlbuildqname() leads to stack buffer overflow in libxml2 Jun 12, 2025
  • High CVE-2024-12085 Rsync: info leak via uninitialized stack contents Jan 14, 2025
  • High CVE-2024-1086 Linux Kernel Use-After-Free Vulnerability KEV Jan 31, 2024
  • High CVE-2019-8720 WebKitGTK Memory Corruption Vulnerability KEV Mar 6, 2023
  • High CVE-2021-4034 Red Hat Polkit Out-of-Bounds Read and Write Vulnerability KEV Jan 28, 2022
  • Critical CVE-2021-40438 Apache HTTP Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) KEV Sep 16, 2021

Not in any source we poll

Listed rather than left blank: an empty field and an unmeasured one look identical on screen, and only one is a reason to look elsewhere.

  • No confirmed IOCs, IP addresses, domains, file hashes, or malware artifacts supplied.
  • No organization-specific asset inventory, compensating-control status, or patch deployment evidence supplied.
  • No exploit packet captures, log samples, or incident case IDs supplied.

Answered from this record

Text assembled only from the fields above — no additional claims.

What should defenders know first?

CVE-2018-15982 is "Adobe Flash Player Use-After-Free Vulnerability", rated High. It affects Flash Player (Adobe); versions are in the scope table. It is in CISA KEV: there is evidence of real-world exploitation. CVSS 7.8 describes technical severity. EPSS 89.58% estimates the probability of exploitation in 30 days; neither replaces your asset context. First verify whether exposed or business-critical assets run the affected versions, apply vendor fixes or mitigations, and preserve logs for review.

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