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CVE

CVE-2021-21017

Adobe Acrobat and Reader Heap-based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

Acrobat Reader DC versions 2020.013.20074 (and earlier), 2020.001.30018 (and earlier) and 2017.011.30188 (and earlier) are affected by a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker could leverage this vulnerability to achieve arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user. Exploitation of this issue requires user interaction in that a victim must open a malicious file.

HIGH · CVSS 8.8 ⚠ CISA KEV EPSS 0.90197
Act now
  • Listed on CISA KEV (known exploited in the wild)
  • SSVC exploitation status: active
  • EPSS ≥ 0.50 - high probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
  • EPSS percentile: top 0% of all CVEs by exploitation likelihood
  • CVSS base score ≥ 7.0
Sigma rules15 YARA rules0
⬢

Required Remediation

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

⬡

Weakness Classification

CWE-122Heap-based Buffer Overflow
CWE-787Out-of-bounds Write
▤

Affected Products & Versions

6
adobe acrobat>= 17.0 and <= 17.011.30188
adobe acrobat>= 20.0 and <= 20.001.30018
adobe acrobat dc<= 20.013.20074
adobe acrobat reader>= 17.0 and <= 17.011.30188
adobe acrobat reader>= 20.0 and <= 20.001.300183
adobe acrobat reader dc<= 20.013.20074
◈

Sigma Hunt Rules

15
Exact rules name this CVE ID. Product rules name an affected product in their title. Related rules cover techniques used by actors who exploited this CVE. Showing the most relevant matches; the complete related set is on the full drill-down.
producthighSuspicious Microsoft Office Child Process - MacOS
producthighRemote Access Tool - Renamed MeshAgent Execution - MacOS
producthighBinary Padding - MacOS
productmediumSuspicious Execution via macOS Script Editor
productmediumSystem Information Discovery Via Sysctl - MacOS
productmediumNew File Exclusion Added To Time Machine Via Tmutil - MacOS
▣

Scoring & Timeline

8.8
HIGH · CVSS v3.1 · psirt@adobe.com
View on NVD
Attack Vector
Network Adjacent Local Physical
Attack Complexity
Low High
Privileges Required
None Low High
User Interaction
None Required
Scope
Unchanged Changed
Confidentiality
None Low High
Integrity
None Low High
Availability
None Low High
Published to NVD11 Feb 2021 · 08:15 PM
CVSS VectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
SSVC triage · cisa-vulnrichment
Exploitation
active
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
SSVC asks the questions that actually drive patch urgency: is it being exploited, can attacks be automated, and how total is the impact.
⚑

Vendor Advisories

2
cisaKEV-CVE-2021-21017
adobe-psirtAPSB21-09
🔗

References & Sources

1
Source URLs (vendor pages, mailing lists, write-ups). Exploit/PoC links are in their own section above to avoid duplication.
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2021-21017Third Party AdvisoryUS Government Resource
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