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Mallory
Critical

Memory corruption in Adobe Flash Player and authplay.dll

IdentifiersCVE-2010-2884CWE-119

CVE-2010-2884 is a memory-corruption vulnerability affecting Adobe Flash Player 10.1.82.76 and earlier on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris, Flash Player 10.1.92.10 on Android, and the bundled Flash component (authplay.dll) in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x before 9.4 and 8.x before 8.2.5 on Windows and Mac OS X. The issue allows a remote attacker to trigger memory corruption via unspecified vectors, leading to arbitrary code execution or application crash/denial of service. The vulnerability was exploited in the wild in September 2010. Because the vulnerable Flash runtime was also embedded in Reader and Acrobat through authplay.dll, patching standalone Flash Player alone was not sufficient to remediate exposure in those products.

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For your environment

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ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

Successful exploitation can result in arbitrary code execution in the security context of the targeted user or process. In practice, this enables full compromise of the affected application context, including malware installation, data access, and follow-on intrusion activity. Where code execution is not achieved, exploitation may still cause denial of service through application crash due to memory corruption. The vulnerability was used in real-world attacks and was incorporated into exploit kits, indicating reliable attacker utility.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

Until patching is completed, reduce exposure by disabling or restricting Flash content execution in browsers and in Adobe Reader/Acrobat where possible, especially the authplay.dll Flash rendering component. Limit use of untrusted PDF and Flash content, apply least-privilege for end users, and use exploit mitigations available on the host platform and endpoint security controls to detect malicious documents or exploit-kit delivery. Network controls that block access to known malicious or compromised watering-hole and exploit-kit infrastructure can further reduce risk.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Upgrade Adobe Flash Player to a version newer than 10.1.82.76 on desktop platforms and newer than 10.1.92.10 on Android. Upgrade Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x to 9.4 or later, and 8.x to 8.2.5 or later, to update the vulnerable authplay.dll component. Ensure both standalone Flash Player and any product-bundled Flash runtimes are patched, since updating Flash Player alone does not update the Flash component embedded in Reader/Acrobat.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.

VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType
AdobeAcrobatapplication
AdobeAcrobat Readerapplication
AdobeFlash Playerapplication

Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.

What this page doesn’t show

The version that knows your environment.

This page is what’s public. Mallory adds the parts that aren’t: which of your assets are affected, which adversaries are exploiting it right now, which detections to deploy, and what to do tonight.
Exposure mapping

Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.

Threat actor evidence1

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware1

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity

Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.