CVE-2021-21017 is a vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat
Published on February 11, 2021
Acrobat Reader DC Heap-based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability Could Lead To Arbitrary Code Execution
Acrobat Reader DC versions 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.
Known Exploited Vulnerability
This Adobe Acrobat and Reader Heap-based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability is part of CISA's list of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities. Acrobat Reader DC versions 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.
The following remediation steps are recommended / required by November 17, 2021: Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2021-21017 can be exploited with network access, requires user interaction. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. This vulnerability is known to be actively exploited by threat actors. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to be very high.
Weakness Type
Heap-based Buffer Overflow
A heap overflow condition is a buffer overflow, where the buffer that can be overwritten is allocated in the heap portion of memory, generally meaning that the buffer was allocated using a routine such as malloc().
Products Associated with CVE-2021-21017
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Affected Versions
Adobe Acrobat Reader:- Version unspecified, <= 2020.013.20074 is affected.
- Version unspecified, <= 2020.001.30018 is affected.
- Version unspecified, <= 2017.011.30188 is affected.
- Version unspecified, <= None is affected.
Exploit Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.