Published December 7 , 2016 5:50 pm in Adobe , Adobe Flash , Malware , Ransomware , Vulnerability 0 Of the top 10 vulnerabilities incorporated by exploit kits in 2016 , six of them ( rather unsurprisingly ) affected Adobe Flash Player . Real-time threat intelligence provider Recorded Future arrived at those findings by analyzing thousands of sources including information security blogs and deep web forum postings . Recorded Future then ranked Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability each vulnerability based upon how many web references linked the bug to at least one of 141 exploit kits , malicious software packages like Neutrino and RIG which abuse security flaws to infect users with TrickBot and other malware . Recorded Future found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the most references to CVE-2016-0189 , a vulnerability affecting Internet Explorer . More than 700 web sources linked the bug to the Magnitude , RIG , Neutrino , and Sundown exploit kits . But when it came to actual links with exploit kits , Adobe Flash Player cleaned house . In total , six Adobe Flash Player vulnerabilities appeared Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in the top 10 list . Two of those ( CVE-2016-1o1o and CVE-2015-8446 ) bonded with the late Angler exploit kit . Another three ( CVE-2016-1019 , CVE-2016-4117 , and CVE-2015-8651 ) connected to at least three exploit kits . Overall , the regrettable honor of integration with the most exploit kits goes to CVE-2015-7645 , a flaw which a mere 70 web sources linked to seven different packages : Neutrino , Angler , Magnitude , RIG , Nuclear Pack , Spartan , and Hunter . Recorded Future provides Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability some background on why this vulnerability likely received so many linkages : `` CVE-2015-7645 impacts Windows , Mac , and Linux operating systems , which makes it extremely versatile . Per Adobe , it can be used to take control of the affected system . Additionally , it was the first zero-day exploit discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability after Adobe introduced Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability new security mitigations , and as such , it was quickly adopted as many other older exploits ceased working on machines with newer Flash versions . The vulnerability was also noted as being used by Pawn Storm ( APT28 , Fancy Bear ) , a Russian government-backed espionage group . '' To protect against RIG and the others from exploiting some of these vulnerabilities on your machine , you should patch Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability your system regularly , install a reputable anti-virus solution , and install an ad-blocker . There 's no hope when it comes to Adobe Flash Player . It seems like new bugs are emerging Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability every day , which makes patch management Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a serious headache . If you can , you should uninstall Adobe Flash Player from your computer as soon as possible .