How severe is CVE-2015-5122?

CVE-2015-5122 has a CVSS score of 9.8/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which products are affected by CVE-2015-5122?

CVE-2015-5122 affects the following products: adobe flash player, adobe flash player desktop runtime, opensuse evergreen, redhat enterprise linux desktop, redhat enterprise linux server, redhat enterprise linux server eus, redhat enterprise linux workstation, suse linux enterprise desktop, and 1 more.

How do I patch CVE-2015-5122?

No patch has shipped for CVE-2015-5122 yet — track the adobe flash player advisory for a fixed release and apply the workarounds below in the meantime.

How do I detect CVE-2015-5122 across my infrastructure?

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

How do I mitigate CVE-2015-5122 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-2015-5122 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 7 known exploit references for CVE-2015-5122, including 1 documented proof-of-concept exploit on Exploit-DB and 6 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-2015-5122?

CVE-2015-5122 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 93.9%, 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-2015-5122 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2015-5122 (Adobe Flash Player Use-After-Free 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.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2015-5122?

CVE-2015-5122 is classified as Use After Free (CWE-416). 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-2015-5122?

CVE-2015-5122 affects adobe flash player; adobe flash player desktop runtime; opensuse evergreen (1 version, e.g. 11.4); redhat enterprise linux desktop (2 versions, e.g. 5.0, 6.0), and 5 more product(s). Check the affected-products list on this page against your deployed version to confirm exposure.

When was CVE-2015-5122 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2015-5122 was published on July 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-2015-5122 — Flash Player

CRITICAL

CVE-2015-5122 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Use After Free 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. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.

Use-after-free vulnerability in the DisplayObject class in the ActionScript 3 (AS3) implementation in Adobe Flash Player 13.x through 13.0.0.302 on Windows and OS X, 14.x through 18.0.0.203…

Published

Jul 14, 2015

Updated

Jun 17, 2026

Affected

9 products

Patched

See advisory

Exploits

7 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-2015-5122.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

93.9%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk-0.09%

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-2015-5122 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 ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Description

Use-after-free vulnerability in the DisplayObject class in the ActionScript 3 (AS3) implementation in Adobe Flash Player 13.x through 13.0.0.302 on Windows and OS X, 14.x through 18.0.0.203 on Windows and OS X, 11.x through 11.2.202.481 on Linux, and 12.x through 18.0.0.204 on Linux Chrome installations allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via crafted Flash content that leverages improper handling of the opaqueBackground property, as exploited in the wild in July 2015.

Affected Products

9 products · 19 configurations

Application

flash playeradobe

≥ 11.0 && ≤ 11.2.202.481

range

Application

flash player desktop runtimeadobe

≥ 18.0 && ≤ 18.0.0.203

range

evergreenopensuse

1 version

11.4

enterprise linux desktopredhat

2 versions

5.06.0

enterprise linux serverredhat

2 versions

5.06.0

enterprise linux server eusredhat

1 version

6.6

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-37599remotewindows✓ Verified

Adobe Flash - opaqueBackground Use-After-Free (Metasploit)

by Metasploit · Jul 13, 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.
Remediation status
No patch has shipped for CVE-2015-5122 yet — track the adobe flash player advisory for a fixed release and apply the workarounds below in the meantime.
Mitigate without a patch
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-0:11.2.202.491-1.el5`	RHSA-2015:1235

Frequently Asked Questions

O3 Security · Runtime Protection

Is CVE-2015-5122 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