CVE-2016-0959

What is this vulnerability?

CVE-2016-0959 is categorized as a critical Use After Free flaw with a CVSS base score of 9.8. Based on our vulnerability intelligence, this issue occurs when the application fails to securely handle untrusted data boundaries.

Use after free vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player Desktop Runtime before 20.0.0.267, Adobe Flash Player Extended Support Release before 18.0.0.324, Adobe Flash Player for Google Chrome before 20.0.0.267, Adobe Flash Player for Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer 11 before 20.0.0.267, Adobe Flash Player for Internet Explorer 10 and 11 before 20.0.0.267, Adobe Flash Player for Linux before 11.2.202.559, AIR Desktop Runtime before 20.0.0.233, AIR SDK before 20.0.0.233, AIR SDK & Compiler before 20.0.0.233, AIR for Android before 20.0.0.233.

This architectural defect enables adversaries to bypass intended security controls, directly manipulating the application's execution state or data layer. Immediate strategic intervention is required.

Risk Assessment

Impact on Systems

✅ Remote Code Execution: Attackers can overwrite the instruction pointer to redirect execution to malicious shellcode.

✅ Memory Corruption: Overwriting adjacent memory regions can corrupt critical application state, leading to privilege escalation.

✅ Denial of Service: Triggering segmentation faults results in immediate disruption of critical systems.

How to Fix and Mitigate CVE-2016-0959

1. Apply Vendor Patches: Upgrade affected components to their latest, non-vulnerable versions immediately.
2. Implement Input Validation: Ensure all user-supplied data is validated, sanitized, and type-checked before processing.
3. Deploy Runtime Protection: Use Precogs continuous monitoring to detect exploitation attempts in real time.
4. Audit Dependencies: Review and update all third-party libraries and transitive dependencies.

Defending with Precogs AI

Adobe Flash Player contains a use-after-free vulnerability. Attackers host malicious SWF files that manipulate objects after they are freed, corrupting memory to achieve remote code execution. Precogs Binary SAST uncovers dangling pointers within complex rendering pipelines.

Use Precogs to continuously scan your codebase, binaries, APIs, and infrastructure for this vulnerability class and related attack patterns. Our AI-powered detection engine combines static analysis with threat intelligence to identify exploitable weaknesses before attackers do.

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Vulnerability Code Signature

Attack Data Flow

Vulnerable Code Pattern

// ❌ VULNERABLE: Use After Free
char *ptr = malloc(256);
free(ptr);
// Taint sink: accessing freed memory
strcpy(ptr, "Exploit payload");

Secure Code Pattern

// ✅ SECURE: Nullifying pointers
char *ptr = malloc(256);
free(ptr);
// Sanitized state: pointer set to NULL
ptr = NULL;

How Precogs Detects This

Precogs Binary SAST engine identifies dangling pointers and complex use-after-free conditions in compiled rendering engines and system libraries.\n