CVE-2018-4878 — Adobe Flash Player Use-After-Free Vulnerability

Triage

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

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.

Remediation

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

No fix documented by the sources we poll. That does not mean none exists: check the vendor advisory.

CISA required action CISA

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

US federal deadline: May 3, 2022 — passed 1626 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, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server…).
2. Treat as emergency remediation: the CVE is in CISA KEV (confirmed exploitation).
3. No fix documented in the sources: reduce exposure and monitor the vendor advisory.
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.

Attack characteristics

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

Every base score collected

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

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.

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.

Threat actors exploiting this CVE MITRE ATT&CK

According to MITRE ATT&CK.

EPSS over time FIRST

Oct 13, 2026 → Oct 14, 2026 · 2 reading(s) · max 89.53%

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 Nov 3, 2021 (KEV listing): exploitation may have started earlier.

Timeline

What happened to this CVE, newest first.

• 2026
• 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
• 2021
• Added to CISA KEV catalog
  Nov 2, 2021 · CISA
• 2018
• CVE published
  Feb 6, 2018 · 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

21 on the record

• helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb18-03.html
  x_refsource_MISC, Vendor Advisory, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/vulnerabilities-and-exploits/north-korean-hack
  x_refsource_MISC, Technical Description, Third Party Advisory, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• threatpost.com/adobe-flash-player-zero-day-spotted-in-the-wild/129742
  GitHub Security Advisories
• www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/adobe-flash-vulnerability-reappears-in-malicious-
  x_refsource_MISC, Press/Media Coverage, Third Party Advisory, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44412/
  exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB, Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:0285
  vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT, Third Party Advisory, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog
  Third Party Advisory, US Government Resource, NIST National Vulnerability Database
• www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2018/02/attacks-leveraging-adobe-zero-day.html
  x_refsource_MISC, Third Party Advisory, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44412
  GitHub Security Advisories
• blog.talosintelligence.com/2018/02/group-123-goes-wild.html
  x_refsource_MISC, Technical Description, Third Party Advisory, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• www.securitytracker.com/id/1040318
  vdb-entry, x_refsource_SECTRACK, Broken Link, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• github.com/InQuest/malware-samples/tree/master/CVE-2018-4878-Adobe-Flash-DRM-UAF
  x_refsource_MISC, Third Party Advisory, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• blog.morphisec.com/flash-exploit-cve-2018-4878-spotted-in-the-wild-massive-malspam-campa
  x_refsource_MISC, Third Party Advisory, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• github.com/cisagov/vulnrichment/issues/196
  Issue Tracking, NIST National Vulnerability Database
• securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/hackers-bypassed-adobe-flash-protection-mechanism
  GitHub Security Advisories
• threatpost.com/adobe-flash-player-zero-day-spotted-in-the-wild/129742/
  x_refsource_MISC, Third Party Advisory, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-4878
  GitHub Security Advisories
• securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/hackers-bypassed-adobe-flash-protection-mechanism/
  x_refsource_MISC, Exploit, Third Party Advisory, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• www.securityfocus.com/bid/102893
  vdb-entry, x_refsource_BID, Broken Link, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• github.com/vysec/CVE-2018-4878
  x_refsource_MISC, Third Party Advisory, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• github.com/advisories/GHSA-2rf4-mpg3-phjw
  GitHub Security Advisories

Elsewhere on this site

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 fixed version, patch or mitigation documented.
• 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-2018-4878 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 89.53% 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.

Comments

Moderated technical discussion. Read the community guidelines.

No comments yet.

Sign in or create an account to comment and suggest corrections.