Adobe Acrobat Reader up to 20.005.30418/22.003.20281/22.003.20282 heap-based overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Adobe Acrobat Reader up to 20.005.30418/22.003.20281/22.003.20282. This issue affects some unknown processing. This manipulation causes heap-based overflow. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2023-21605. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Adobe Acrobat Reader up to 20.005.30418/22.003.20281/22.003.20282 (Document Reader Software). It has been declared as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is some unknown processing. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a heap-based overflow vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-122. 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(). As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Adobe Acrobat Reader versions 22.003.20282 (and earlier), 22.003.20281 (and earlier) and 20.005.30418 (and earlier) are affected by a Heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability that could result in 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 weakness was shared 01/19/2023 as apsb23-01. It is possible to read the advisory at helpx.adobe.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2023-21605 since 12/01/2022. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $5k-$25k at the moment (estimation calculated on 09/21/2025).

Upgrading eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at EUVD (EUVD-2023-25772). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Document Reader Software

Vendor

• Adobe

Name

• Acrobat Reader

Version

• 20.005.30418
• 22.003.20281
• 22.003.20282

License

• free

Website

• Vendor: https://www.adobe.com/

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Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

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