How severe is CVE-2015-3043?

CVE-2015-3043 has a CVSS score of 9.8/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which products are affected by CVE-2015-3043?

CVE-2015-3043 affects the following products: adobe flash player, novell suse linux enterprise desktop, novell suse linux enterprise workstation extension, opensuse evergreen, opensuse opensuse, redhat enterprise linux desktop, redhat enterprise linux eus, redhat enterprise linux server, and 3 more.

How do I patch CVE-2015-3043?

Apply the adobe flash player security patch or hotfix for CVE-2015-3043 on the affected version, following the vendor advisory for your exact build.

How do I detect CVE-2015-3043 across my infrastructure?

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

How do I mitigate CVE-2015-3043 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Constrain what reaches the vulnerable code: limit the size and shape of untrusted input, isolate the affected component in a sandboxed or least-privileged process, and enable the platform's memory-safety mitigations (ASLR, stack protector, hardened allocator) so an out-of-bounds access is more likely to fail closed than to be exploitable. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.

Is CVE-2015-3043 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 6 known exploit references for CVE-2015-3043, including 1 documented proof-of-concept exploit on Exploit-DB and 5 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-2015-3043?

CVE-2015-3043 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 73.9%, placing it in the 99th 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-2015-3043 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2015-3043 (Adobe Flash Player Memory Corruption Vulnerability) was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 2022-03-03. CISA required all US federal civilian agencies to remediate this vulnerability by 2022-03-24. 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.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2015-3043?

CVE-2015-3043 is classified as Out-of-bounds Write (CWE-787). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

Which products and versions are affected by CVE-2015-3043?

CVE-2015-3043 affects adobe flash player; novell suse linux enterprise desktop (2 versions, e.g. 11.0, 12.0); novell suse linux enterprise workstation extension (1 version, e.g. 12.0); opensuse evergreen (1 version, e.g. 11.4), and 7 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-2015-3043?

A Metasploit module references CVE-2015-3043, 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-2015-3043 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2015-3043 was published on April 14, 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-2015-3043 — Flash Player

CRITICAL

CVE-2015-3043 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability in adobe flash player. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-03) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. A fix is available — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Adobe Flash Player before 13.0.0.281 and 14.x through 17.x before 17.0.0.169 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.457 on Linux allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause…

Published

Apr 14, 2015

Updated

Jun 17, 2026

Affected

11 products

Patched

See advisory

Exploits

6 known

Exploitation data as of Oct 22, 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 2022-03-03. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-03-24.
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-2015-3043.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

73.9%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs99th percentile — riskier than 99% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2015-3043 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

Adobe Flash Player before 13.0.0.281 and 14.x through 17.x before 17.0.0.169 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.457 on Linux allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unspecified vectors, as exploited in the wild in April 2015, a different vulnerability than CVE-2015-0347, CVE-2015-0350, CVE-2015-0352, CVE-2015-0353, CVE-2015-0354, CVE-2015-0355, CVE-2015-0360, CVE-2015-3038, CVE-2015-3041, and CVE-2015-3042.

Affected Products

11 products · 19 configurations

Application

flash playeradobe

≥ 14.0.0.125 && < 17.0.0.169

range

suse linux enterprise desktopnovell

2 versions

11.012.0

suse linux enterprise workstation extensionnovell

1 version

12.0

evergreenopensuse

1 version

11.4

opensuseopensuse

2 versions

13.113.2

enterprise linux desktopredhat

2 versions

5.06.0

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-37536remotemultiple✓ Verified

Adobe Flash Player - Nellymoser Audio Decoding Buffer Overflow (Metasploit)

by Metasploit · Jul 8, 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-2015-3043 on the affected version, following the vendor advisory for your exact build.
Workarounds
Constrain what reaches the vulnerable code: limit the size and shape of untrusted input, isolate the affected component in a sandboxed or least-privileged process, and enable the platform's memory-safety mitigations (ASLR, stack protector, hardened allocator) so an out-of-bounds access is more likely to fail closed than to be exploitable. 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-0:11.2.202.457-1.el5`	RHSA-2015:0813

Frequently Asked Questions

O3 Security · Runtime Protection

Is CVE-2015-3043 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-2015-3043 — 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-2015-3043 being exploited in your environment?