CVE-2021-40702 in Premiere Elements
Summary
by MITRE • 09/28/2021
Adobe Premiere Elements version 2021.2235820 (and earlier) is affected by a memory corruption vulnerability due to insecure handling of a malicious psd file, potentially resulting in arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/03/2025
Adobe Premiere Elements version 2021.2235820 and earlier versions contain a memory corruption vulnerability classified as CVE-2021-40702 that stems from insecure handling of malicious psd files. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-121 memory corruption category and represents a critical security flaw that could enable remote code execution when a user opens a specially crafted psd file. The vulnerability exists due to inadequate input validation and memory management within the application's image processing pipeline where it fails to properly sanitize psd file structures before parsing. The insecure handling occurs during the file parsing phase when the application attempts to process maliciously constructed psd file headers and metadata without sufficient bounds checking or memory allocation validation. This flaw allows an attacker to craft a psd file that, when opened by an affected version of Premiere Elements, triggers a memory corruption condition that can be leveraged to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. The exploitation requires user interaction since the malicious file must be opened by the victim, making this a client-side attack vector that fits within the ATT&CK technique T1203 for Exploitation for Client Execution. The memory corruption manifests through heap-based buffer overflows or use-after-free conditions that occur when the application attempts to process malformed psd file structures. The vulnerability impacts the application's image import functionality and represents a significant threat to users who may unknowingly open malicious files from untrusted sources. Attackers could potentially deliver malicious psd files through phishing campaigns, compromised websites, or social engineering tactics targeting creative professionals who use Adobe Premiere Elements for video editing tasks. The exploitation scenario requires the user to interact with the malicious file directly, which makes this vulnerability particularly dangerous in environments where users frequently handle external media files. This vulnerability affects users who rely on Adobe Premiere Elements for professional video editing and could potentially compromise entire workstations if exploited successfully. The insecure handling of psd files demonstrates a failure in the application's defensive programming practices and highlights the importance of proper input validation in multimedia processing applications. Organizations using Adobe Premiere Elements should prioritize immediate patching of this vulnerability to prevent potential exploitation by threat actors. The vulnerability's impact extends beyond simple code execution to potentially allow attackers to gain persistent access to user systems through additional attack vectors that could leverage the elevated privileges obtained from successful exploitation. Security researchers have identified that this vulnerability could be chained with other exploits to create more sophisticated attack scenarios, making it a critical concern for enterprise security teams managing creative software environments. The memory corruption vulnerability represents a fundamental flaw in Adobe's file parsing implementation that requires immediate remediation through software updates and patches provided by the vendor. Organizations should implement additional security controls such as email filtering, web content filtering, and user education to reduce the risk of exploitation while awaiting official patches. The vulnerability's classification as a memory corruption issue aligns with industry standards for evaluating software security flaws and demonstrates the need for comprehensive security testing of multimedia processing applications. Proper input validation and memory management practices should be enforced throughout the application's file handling routines to prevent similar issues from occurring in future versions. The security implications of this vulnerability extend to all users who may be exposed to malicious psd files through normal workflow operations, making it a critical priority for security administrators to address immediately through coordinated patch management strategies.