CVE-2021-43751 in Premiere Pro
Summary
by MITRE • 09/07/2023
Adobe Premiere Pro versions 22.0 (and earlier) and 15.4.2 (and earlier) are affected by an out-of-bounds read vulnerability that could lead to disclosure of sensitive memory. An attacker could leverage this vulnerability to bypass mitigations such as ASLR. Exploitation of this issue requires user interaction in that a victim must open a malicious file.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/22/2025
Adobe Premiere Pro versions 22.0 and earlier as well as 15.4.2 and earlier contain a critical out-of-bounds read vulnerability designated as CVE-2021-43751 that presents significant security implications for affected systems. This vulnerability resides within the application's handling of specially crafted media files and represents a fundamental flaw in memory management that allows unauthorized access to sensitive data structures. The vulnerability manifests when the software processes malformed input files, specifically targeting the way Premiere Pro manages memory allocation and access patterns during media file parsing operations. This issue falls under the category of memory corruption vulnerabilities and aligns with CWE-125 which describes out-of-bounds read conditions that can lead to information disclosure and potential privilege escalation.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability requires an attacker to craft a malicious media file that triggers the out-of-bounds read condition when opened by an unsuspecting user. The attack vector is limited to user interaction since the application must be executed with the malicious file as input, making it a client-side attack requiring social engineering or targeted delivery methods. When the vulnerable application attempts to read memory beyond allocated bounds, it may inadvertently expose sensitive information from adjacent memory locations including stack contents, heap data, or other process memory segments. This memory disclosure can reveal critical information such as stack canaries, heap addresses, or other security-relevant data that could be leveraged to bypass modern exploit mitigations including address space layout randomization.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure as it directly undermines fundamental security mechanisms designed to protect systems from exploitation. The ability to bypass ASLR through memory disclosure creates a significant risk for attackers seeking to develop more sophisticated exploits against the affected software. ASLR is a critical defense mechanism that randomizes memory layout to prevent predictable memory addresses, but this vulnerability allows attackers to harvest address information that can be used to defeat these protections. The vulnerability affects a widely used professional video editing application, making it particularly concerning as it could be exploited in targeted attacks against creative professionals, media organizations, or enterprises that rely on Adobe Premiere Pro for content creation and editing workflows.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including updating to the latest versions of Adobe Premiere Pro where the vulnerability has been addressed through proper bounds checking and memory management improvements. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of input validation and proper memory handling in multimedia applications, particularly those processing untrusted content from external sources. Security teams should monitor for any attempts to deliver malicious media files through email attachments, file sharing platforms, or other attack vectors that could leverage this vulnerability. Additionally, users should exercise caution when opening media files from untrusted sources and organizations should consider implementing application whitelisting policies to restrict execution of unauthorized software. The vulnerability also highlights the need for regular security assessments of creative software applications that process multimedia content, as these applications often handle untrusted input and require robust memory safety controls. Organizations should also consider implementing network-based intrusion detection systems to monitor for potential exploitation attempts targeting this vulnerability. The remediation process should include comprehensive testing to ensure that the update does not introduce compatibility issues with existing workflows while maintaining the security improvements necessary to protect against this memory corruption vulnerability.