The Nuclear exploit kit was first seen in 2010.

The Nuclear exploit kit had exploits for the following vulnerabilities:

• Adobe Acrobat Reader: CVE-2010-0188
• Adobe Flash Player: CVE-2014-0515, CVE-2014-0569, CVE-2014-8439, CVE-2015-0311, CVE-2015-0336
• Internet  Explorer: CVE-2013-2551
• Microsoft Silverlight: CVE-2013-0074
• Java: CVE-2012-0507

Nuclear was known to spread through pseudo-Darkleech and Afraidgate campaigns.

Nuclear was also known to download CryptMIC, Locky, CryptoLocker, Teslacrypt, and CTB-Locker ransomware. Other than ransomware, it also distributed banking trojans. Nuclear was finally shut down in mid-2016.