Lucian Constantin
CSO Senior Writer

Emergency Flash Player patch fixes actively exploited vulnerability

news
Mar 10, 20162 mins

The new updates address a total of 18 critical flaws

adobe flash player v10 icon
Credit: Adobe Systems

Adobe Systems released new versions of Flash Player in order to fix 18 critical vulnerabilities that could be exploited to take over computers, including one flaw that’s already targeted by attackers.

“Adobe is aware of a report that an exploit for CVE-2016-1010 is being used in limited, targeted attacks,” the company said in a security advisory. The flaw stems from a heap overflow condition and was reported to Adobe by researchers from antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab.

Kaspersky Lab did not immediately respond to an inquiry seeking more details about the targeted attacks in which the vulnerability is being exploited.

Adobe advises users to upgrade their Flash Player installations to version 21.0.0.182 for Windows or Mac and version 11.2.202.577 for Linux. The extended support release of Flash Player has also been updated to version 18.0.0.133.

The Flash Player plug-ins bundled with Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge will automatically be updated through those browsers’ update mechanisms.

Adobe has also released version 21.0.0.176 of AIR Desktop Runtime, AIR SDK, AIR SDK & Compiler and AIR for Android, which contain Flash Player components.

Flash Player vulnerabilities are a common target for Web-based, drive-by download exploits. Users should configure their browsers to require confirmation before running plug-in-based content such as Flash. This feature is commonly referred to as click-to-play.

Lucian Constantin

Lucian Constantin writes about information security, privacy, and data protection for CSO. Before joining CSO in 2019, Lucian was a freelance writer for VICE Motherboard, Security Boulevard, Forbes, and The New Stack. Earlier in his career, he was an information security correspondent for the IDG News Service and Information security news editor for Softpedia.

Before he became a journalist, Lucian worked as a system and network administrator. He enjoys attending security conferences and delving into interesting research papers. He lives and works in Romania.

You can reach him at lucian_constantin@foundryco.com or @lconstantin on X. For encrypted email, his PGP key's fingerprint is: 7A66 4901 5CDA 844E 8C6D 04D5 2BB4 6332 FC52 6D42

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