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CVE-2021-21017

94
FAUCET Score

CVE-2021-21017 is a critical heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability affecting Adobe Acrobat Reader DC versions 2020.013.20074 and earlier, 2020.001.30018 and earlier, and 2017.011.30188 and earlier, impacting users across Adobe, Apple, and Microsoft platforms. This vulnerability carries a high CVSS score of 8.8, indicating that an unauthenticated attacker could achieve arbitrary code execution with high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact if a user opens a malicious file. Notably, this vulnerability is actively exploited in the wild, as confirmed by its inclusion in the KEV catalog and media coverage from BleepingComputer and SecurityWeek. Despite no public exploit code on Metasploit, Nuclei, or ExploitDB, there is significant community discussion, with 12 mentions, highlighting its importance.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
>= 17.0, <= 17.011.30188CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:adobe:acrobat:*:*:*:*:classic:*:*:*
>= 20.0, <= 20.001.30018CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:adobe:acrobat:*:*:*:*:classic:*:*:*
<= 20.013.20074CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:adobe:acrobat_dc:*:*:*:*:continuous:*:*:*
>= 17.0, <= 17.011.30188CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:adobe:acrobat_reader:*:*:*:*:classic:*:*:*
>= 20.0, <= 20.001.300183CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:adobe:acrobat_reader:*:*:*:*:classic:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

8.8HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
2.8
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
86.21%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
99.7%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
Added to KEV · Nov 3, 2021
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.8621 is in the 100th percentile among its peer group of 14,875 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.2 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.1 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Vendor Patches (1)

adobevendor investigatingvia nvd_reference
View patch

References

cisa.gov / known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog
Third Party AdvisoryUS Government Resource
helpx.adobe.com / security/products/acrobat/apsb21-09.html
Vendor Advisory