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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2022-40009: SWFTools · Use After Free

Source CVE Database V5

0

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 9.8 Critical.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 17:16 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
9.8Critical
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
1.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 71% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 20 Sep 2022

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponised: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

What to do

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2022-40009 effectively, European organizations should: 1) Identify and inventory all instances of SWFTools or related utilities in their environments, including development, production, and testing systems. 2) Monitor the SWFTools project and trusted security advisories for official patches or updates addressing this vulnerability and apply them promptly once available. 3) If patches are unavailable, consider isolating or disabling components that utilize the vulnerable grow_unicode function, especially in exposed network segments. 4) Employ application whitelisting and restrict execution of untrusted SWF or font files to reduce attack surface. 5) Implement network-level protections such as intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS) with signatures targeting heap-use-after-free exploitation techniques. 6) Conduct thorough code reviews and static analysis if SWFTools source code is customized or integrated into proprietary solutions. 7) Enhance endpoint protection with behavior-based detection to identify exploitation attempts. 8) Educate relevant personnel about the risks associated with legacy Flash and font processing tools to avoid inadvertent exposure. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on proactive identification, isolation, and monitoring tailored to the specific nature of the vulnerability and affected software.

Description

SWFTools commit 772e55a was discovered to contain a heap-use-after-free via the function grow_unicode at /lib/ttf.c.

References

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