CVE-2015-5540

published 2015-08-14

CVE-2015-5540: Use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.232 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.508 on Linux, Adobe AIR before 18.0.0.199, Adobe…

Priority P2 65 critical 10 CVSS 2.0

AV N AC L Au N C C I C A C

EXPLOIT

Use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.232 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.508 on Linux, Adobe AIR before 18.0.0.199, Adobe AIR SDK before 18.0.0.199, and Adobe AIR SDK & Compiler before 18.0.0.199 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2015-5127, CVE-2015-5130, CVE-2015-5134, CVE-2015-5539, CVE-2015-5550, CVE-2015-5551, CVE-2015-5556, CVE-2015-5557, CVE-2015-5559, CVE-2015-5561, CVE-2015-5563, CVE-2015-5564, and CVE-2015-5565.

Affected

6 ranges

Vendor	Product	Version range	Fixed in
adobe	air	<= 18.0.0.180	—
adobe	air_sdk	<= 18.0.0.180	—
adobe	air_sdk_compiler	<= 18.0.0.180	—
adobe	flash_player	<= 11.2.202.491	—
adobe	flash_player	<= 18.0.0.209	—
opensuse	evergreen	—	—

Detection & IOCs extracted from sources · hover to see the quote

url https://gitlab.com/exploit-database/exploitdb-bin-sploits/-/raw/main/bin-sploits/37859.zip↗

• → Look for ActionScript setting a watch on the `childNodes` property of an XML/XMLNode object, particularly where the watch callback removes child nodes — this is the trigger pattern for the use-after-free. ↗
• → Post-UAF heap spray pattern: large BitmapData allocations (100x1000) in a tight loop (100 iterations) inside the watch callback may indicate heap grooming for exploitation. ↗

• · The CVE referenced in the sources (CVE-2015-5564) is a related but distinct use-after-free vulnerability; the exploit-db entry is attributed to CVE-2015-5540 (XML.childNodes UAF). Confirm the correct CVE mapping before using for tracking. ↗
• · Affected versions span multiple products: Flash Player before 18.0.0.232 (Windows/OS X), before 11.2.202.508 (Linux), and Adobe AIR/AIR SDK/AIR SDK & Compiler before 18.0.0.199. Detection rules should account for all affected version ranges. ↗

CVSS provenance

nvd v2.0 10.0 CRITICAL AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

osv 10.0 CRITICAL

vendor_redhat 10.0 CRITICAL

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