The Overlooked North Korean Actor
…vulnerability (CVE-2018-4878) by a suspected North Korean cyber espionage group…
3 passages name itOriginal (opens in a new tab) ↗
CVE-2018-4878 KEVRansomwarePublic exploitEnd of life High · 7.8 EPSS 90.3%
Adobe Flash Player Use-After-Free Vulnerability
Adobe · Flash Player
End of lifeAdobe Flash Player reached End of lifeThe vendor no longer ships security fixes. Remove or isolate the product instead of waiting for a patch. on 31 Dec 2020. No patch is coming: remove or isolate it.
Summary
Adobe Flash Player before 28.0.0.161 contains a use-after-free flaw caused by a dangling pointer in the Primetime SDK, related to how the media player handles listener objects. An attacker who can get a user to interact with malicious content, such as opening a crafted file or page, can achieve arbitrary code execution, with no authentication required and local access as the prerequisite.
Official description · NVD
A use-after-free vulnerability was discovered in Adobe Flash Player before 28.0.0.161. This vulnerability occurs due to a dangling pointer in the Primetime SDK related to media player handling of listener objects. A successful attack can lead to arbitrary code execution. This was exploited in the wild in January and February 2018.
Priority scorePatchfirst’s 0 to 100 ranking. It adds points for CISA KEV listing, ransomware use, EPSS, threat reports, public exploit code and CVSS. Every CVE page shows the breakdown. Breakdown
67.3 / 100
- Exploited
- Yes, in CISA KEV
- Reports
- 1
- Tactics
- 3/15
How an attack unfolds
Based on MITRE ATT&CKA public catalogue of the techniques attackers use, maintained by MITRE. Patchfirst uses it to describe what attackers do with a vulnerability. mappings. Select a step to see the evidence.Exploitation timelineDated milestones for a CVE: when it was disclosed, when exploit code became public, when exploitation was confirmed, and when threat reports named it.
First seen exploited 3 days before it was disclosed. Public exploit code (Exploit-DB) was available 24 months before disclosure.
- Public exploit codeExploit-DB24 mo before
- First seen exploitedVulnCheck KEV evidence3 days before
- Disclosedday 0
- Added to CISA KEVknown ransomware use; EU database agrees+4 yrs
CISA KEV listing is when exploitation was confirmed, not necessarily the first attack.
MITRE ATT&CKA public catalogue of the techniques attackers use, maintained by MITRE. Patchfirst uses it to describe what attackers do with a vulnerability. techniques
3 TechniqueOne specific attacker behaviour in MITRE ATT&CK, such as T1190 “Exploit Public-Facing Application”. IDs with a dot, like T1059.004, are sub-techniques., grouped by TacticThe attacker’s goal at a stage of an attack in MITRE ATT&CK, such as Initial Access or Persistence. Each technique belongs to one or more tactics. in kill-chain order 3ExecutionTA0002
Malicious File T1204.002
MITRE CTID mapping of the KEV entry · how it is exploited
The exploitation technique for this vulnerability is based on a vulnerability in Client software. In the wild, this was seen to be exploited by a malicious excel file. The observed goals of this exploit from Group 123 are remote access and data exfiltration.
Command and ControlTA0011
Remote Access Tools T1219
MITRE CTID mapping of the KEV entry · primary impact
The exploitation technique for this vulnerability is based on a vulnerability in Client software. In the wild, this was seen to be exploited by a malicious excel file. The observed goals of this exploit from Group 123 are remote access and data exfiltration. Installation of the remote access software could allow for a number of different secondary impacts. See the MITRE ATT&CK reference on the DOGCALL software for more information.
ExfiltrationTA0010
MITRE CTID mapping of the KEV entry · follow-on activity
Detection
0 rules for this CVE · 50 general rules for its techniquesRules for this CVE
0Sigma ruleAn open, vendor-neutral detection rule for log data. Security teams convert Sigma rules into searches for their own SIEM. that reference CVE-2018-4878 directly.CVE-specific rules are not available in this build. Search SigmaHQ ↗
General rules for this CVE’s techniques
These detect the technique in general, not this specific vulnerability.
Malicious FileT1204.00239 general rules
- Droppers Exploiting CVE-2017-11882criticalstable
- Ursnif Malware C2 URL Patterncriticalstable
- Exploit for CVE-2017-8759criticaltest
- Potential Maze Ransomware Activitycriticaltest
- File With Uncommon Extension Created By An Office Applicationhightest
- Flash Player Update from Suspicious Locationhightest
- GAC DLL Loaded Via Office Applicationshightest
- HackTool - LittleCorporal Generated Maldoc Injectionhightest
Remote Access ToolsT12196 general rules
- Renamed Visual Studio Code Tunnel Executionhightest
- Suspicious Velociraptor Child Processhighexperimental
- Visual Studio Code Tunnel Executionmediumtest
- OpenEDR Spawning Command Shellmediumexperimental
- Potentially Suspicious File Creation by OpenEDR's ITSMServicemediumexperimental
- Remote Access Tool - TacticalRMM Agent Registration to Potentially Attacker-Controlled Servermediumexperimental
Exfiltration Over C2 ChannelT10415 general rules
- Equation Group C2 Communicationhightest
- OpenCanary - TFTP Requesthightest
- Shai-Hulud NPM Package Malicious Exfiltration via Curlhighexperimental
- Network Communication Initiated To Portmap.IO Domainmediumtest
- Tunneling Tool Executionmediumtest
Sigma rules © SigmaHQ, Detection Rule License 1.1; linked, not reproduced.
What security researchers reported
Named in 1 threat report1 reportservices.google.com
Reports are matched by finding the exact id CVE-2018-4878 in their text; nobody has reviewed the match. One passage is shown per report, at most 320 characters, linked to the original.
Also mentioned in 50 community threat pulses (AlienVault OTX)
Weaker evidencePulses are indicator collections that anyone can publish. A mention is not confirmation of exploitation.
- Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 29, 202628 Oct 2026
- Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 28, 202627 Oct 2026
- Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 27, 202626 Oct 2026
- Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 24, 202623 Oct 2026
- Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 23, 202622 Oct 2026
- Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 22, 202621 Oct 2026
- 44 more on OTX