Alert - Active Exploitation of Vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player

Number: AL16-006
Date: 6 April 2016

Purpose

The purpose of this alert is to bring attention to the active exploitation of a recently disclosed vulnerability VulnerabilityA flaw or weakness in the design or implementation of an information system or its environment that could be exploited to adversely affect an organization's assets or operations. in Adobe Flash Player.

Assessment

CCIRC is aware of attacks exploiting a previously unknown vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player.  The vulnerability exists in version 20.0.0.306 and earlier for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Chrome OS.   Identified as CVE-2016-1019, exploitation of this vulnerability can allow for an attacker to take control of the affected system after causing a crash.

Mitigation for this vulnerability exists for Adobe Flash Player since version 21.0.0.182, however the vulnerable source code still exists. Adobe is planning to provide a patch as early as 7 April 2016.

Suggested Action

CCIRC recommends system administrators test and deploy the latest version of Adobe Flash Player to affected systems accordingly to aid with mitigation for this vulnerability, and to consider disabling Adobe Flash until the patch is available to install.

References:

https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsa16-01.html