How severe is CVE-2015-0311?

CVE-2015-0311 has a CVSS score of 9.8/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which products are affected by CVE-2015-0311?

CVE-2015-0311 affects the following products: adobe flash player, microsoft edge, microsoft internet explorer, suse linux enterprise desktop, suse linux enterprise workstation extension.

How do I patch CVE-2015-0311?

Apply the adobe flash player security patch or hotfix for CVE-2015-0311 on the affected version, following the vendor advisory for your exact build.

How do I detect CVE-2015-0311 across my infrastructure?

Inventory every adobe flash player deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above.

How do I mitigate CVE-2015-0311 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.

Is CVE-2015-0311 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 5 known exploit references for CVE-2015-0311, including 1 documented proof-of-concept exploit on Exploit-DB and 4 in-the-wild exploitations observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2015-0311?

CVE-2015-0311 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 85.6%, placing it in the 100th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A score above 50% indicates significantly elevated exploitation risk — immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Is CVE-2015-0311 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2015-0311 (Adobe Flash Player Remote Code Execution Vulnerability) was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 2022-04-13. CISA required all US federal civilian agencies to remediate this vulnerability by 2022-05-04. The required action was: The impacted product is end-of-life and should be disconnected if still in use. Being listed in the KEV catalog is the strongest possible confirmation of active exploitation — treat this as a critical priority.

Which products and versions are affected by CVE-2015-0311?

CVE-2015-0311 affects adobe flash player; microsoft edge; microsoft internet explorer (2 versions, e.g. 10, 11); suse linux enterprise desktop (2 versions, e.g. 11, 12), and 1 more product(s). Check the affected-products list on this page against your deployed version to confirm exposure.

Is there exploit tooling available for CVE-2015-0311?

2 Metasploit modules reference CVE-2015-0311, which lowers the barrier to weaponization. Public exploit tooling significantly increases real-world risk — prioritize patching and ensure detection coverage. Exploit tooling should only ever be used in isolated, authorized testing environments.

When was CVE-2015-0311 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2015-0311 was published on January 23, 2015 and was last updated on June 17, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🛡️

CISA KEV · ACTIVELY EXPLOITED

CRITICAL severity

CVE-2015-0311 — Flash Player

CRITICAL

CVE-2015-0311 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) remote code execution vulnerability in adobe flash player. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-04-13) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. A fix is available — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Unspecified vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player through 13.0.0.262 and 14.x, 15.x, and 16.x through 16.0.0.287 on Windows and OS X and through 11.2.202.438 on Linux allows remote attackers…

Published

Jan 23, 2015

Updated

Jun 17, 2026

Affected

5 products

Patched

See advisory

Exploits

5 known

Exploitation data as of Oct 23, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-04-13. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-05-04.
A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2015-0311.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

85.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs100th percentile — riskier than 100% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2015-0311 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Description

Unspecified vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player through 13.0.0.262 and 14.x, 15.x, and 16.x through 16.0.0.287 on Windows and OS X and through 11.2.202.438 on Linux allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via unknown vectors, as exploited in the wild in January 2015.

Affected Products

5 products · 9 configurations

Application

flash playeradobe

≥ 14.0.0.125 && ≤ 13.0.0.262

range

Application

edgemicrosoft

all

Application

internet explorermicrosoft

2 versions

1011

linux enterprise desktopsuse

2 versions

1112

linux enterprise workstation extensionsuse

1 version

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

EDB-36360remotewindows✓ Verified

Adobe Flash Player - ByteArray UncompressViaZlibVariant Use-After-Free (Metasploit)

by Metasploit · Mar 12, 2015

Exploit-DB Source

Detection & mitigation playbook

Vendor / appliance

Detect
Inventory every adobe flash player deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above.
Fix
Apply the adobe flash player security patch or hotfix for CVE-2015-0311 on the affected version, following the vendor advisory for your exact build.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.

Fixing This On Your OS

If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.

Red HatCritical

Product	Fixed in	Advisory
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Supplementary	`flash-plugin-0:11.2.202.440-1.el5`	RHSA-2015:0094

Frequently Asked Questions

O3 Security · Runtime Protection

Is CVE-2015-0311 being exploited in your environment?

Detect and block the exploit chain at execution, on systems you cannot patch yet.

Protect my workloads How runtime protection works

CVE-2015-0311 — Flash Player

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

EPSS Exploitation Probability

How urgent is this, really

Where this sits among everything scored

Description

Affected Products

Detection & mitigation playbook

Detect

Fix

Workarounds

Fixing This On Your OS

Frequently Asked Questions

Is CVE-2015-0311 being exploited in your environment?