How severe is CVE-2016-0984?

CVE-2016-0984 has a CVSS score of 8.8/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2016-0984?

Affected package information for CVE-2016-0984 is not yet fully mapped. Check the official advisory links for details.

How do I fix CVE-2016-0984?

No fixed version has been published for CVE-2016-0984 yet. Monitor the advisory for updates, apply mitigations recommended by the vendor, and use O3 Security to track when a fix becomes available in your stack.

Is CVE-2016-0984 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 4 known exploit references for CVE-2016-0984, including 1 documented proof-of-concept exploit on Exploit-DB and 3 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-2016-0984?

CVE-2016-0984 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 67.3%, 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-2016-0984 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2016-0984 (Adobe Flash Player and AIR Use-After-Free Vulnerability) was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 2022-05-25. CISA required all US federal civilian agencies to remediate this vulnerability by 2022-06-15. The required action was: The impacted products are 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-2016-0984?

CVE-2016-0984 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-2016-0984?

CVE-2016-0984 affects adobe air desktop runtime; adobe air sdk; adobe air sdk \& compiler; adobe flash player, and 1 more product(s). Check the affected-products list on this page against your deployed version to confirm exposure.

When was CVE-2016-0984 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2016-0984 was published on February 10, 2016 and was last updated on April 22, 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·Added 2022-05-25 — agencies required to remediate by 2022-06-15

CVE-2016-0984

HIGH

Use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.329 and 19.x and 20.x before 20.0.0.306 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.569 on Linux, Adobe AIR before 20.0.0.260,…

Published

Feb 10, 2016

Updated

Apr 22, 2026

Affected

0 pkgs

Patched

None yet

Exploits

4 known

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

67.3%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

High Risk99th percentile0.00%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

Description

Use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.329 and 19.x and 20.x before 20.0.0.306 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.569 on Linux, Adobe AIR before 20.0.0.260, Adobe AIR SDK before 20.0.0.260, and Adobe AIR SDK & Compiler before 20.0.0.260 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-0973, CVE-2016-0974, CVE-2016-0975, CVE-2016-0982, and CVE-2016-0983.

Affected Products

5 products · 9 configurations

Application

air desktop runtimeadobe

≤ 20.0.0.233

range

Application

air sdkadobe

≤ 20.0.0.233

range

Application

air sdk \& compileradobe

≤ 20.0.0.233

range

Application

flash playeradobe

≤ 20.0.0.286

range

Application

flash player desktop runtimeadobe

≤ 20.0.0.286

range

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-39462dosmultiple✓ Verified

Adobe Flash - Sound.loadPCMFromByteArray Dangling Pointer

by Google Security Research · Feb 17, 2016

Exploit-DB Source

Frequently Asked Questions

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2016-0984 in your stack?

O3 detects CVE-2016-0984 across dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my stack How O3 SCA works

CVSS Score

8.8/10

CVSS v3 base score

Vector breakdown

AV:Attack Vector

Network

AC:Attack Complexity

Low

PR:Privileges Required

None

UI:User Interaction

Required

S:Scope

Unchanged

C:Confidentiality

High

I:Integrity

High

A:Availability

High

Raw vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CWE Classification

CWE-416Use After Free

Weaponization

No known public exploit tooling found.

Timeline

Disclosed

Feb 10, 2016

First exploit

Feb 17, 2016

6 days after disclosure — rapid exploitation

KEV added

May 25, 2022

Last updated

Apr 22, 2026

Identifiers

CVE-2016-0984

References

Advisorylists.opensuse.org Advisorylists.opensuse.org Advisorylists.opensuse.org Advisorylists.opensuse.org Advisoryrhn.redhat.com Advisorysecuritytracker.com Advisorysecurity.gentoo.org Advisorylists.opensuse.org Advisorylists.opensuse.org Advisorylists.opensuse.org Advisorylists.opensuse.org Advisoryrhn.redhat.com Advisorysecuritytracker.com Advisorysecurity.gentoo.org Fixhelpx.adobe.com Fixhelpx.adobe.com Exploit / PoCexploit-db.com Exploit / PoCexploit-db.com Webcisa.gov

Data from OSV.dev, enriched by O3 Security. Refreshed hourly.