CVE-2004-1598
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedAdobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader 6.0 allow remote attackers to read arbitrary files via a PDF file that contains an embedded Shockwave (swf) file that references files outside of the temporary directory.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceAdobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader 6.0 contain a path traversal vulnerability where a malicious PDF file with an embedded Shockwave Flash (swf) object can reference files outside the intended temporary directory, allowing remote attackers to read arbitrary files on the system.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 6.0= 6.0.1= 6.0.2= 6.0= 6.0.1= 6.0.2CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify Adobe Acrobat or Reader installationCheck for Adobe Acrobat/Reader installation by inspecting the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat (or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat Reader) in Windows, or by locating the application in /Applications on macOS at /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat or Acrobat Reader.Affected if Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader version 6.0, 6.0.1, or 6.0.2 is installed on the system
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Confirm exact installed versionOpen Adobe Acrobat or Reader, then navigate to Help > About Adobe Acrobat (or About Adobe Reader) to display the exact version number. On Windows, you can also read the version from the registry value InstallVersion in the same registry path used above.Affected if The displayed version is 6.0, 6.0.1, or 6.0.2 exactly
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Identify temporary directory configurationThis vulnerability exploits how the application handles embedded Shockwave Flash (swf) objects within PDF files when extracted to the system temporary directory. Review the application security settings or preferences to confirm whether the PDF viewer is configured to automatically process or render embedded multimedia content such as SWF files.Affected if The PDF viewer processes embedded SWF objects and the temporary directory path is accessible to the application
A user is affected if Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader version 6.0, 6.0.1, or 6.0.2 is installed and the system processes PDF files containing embedded Shockwave Flash content.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade Adobe Acrobat/Reader 6.0 to a patched version, or apply available security updates from Adobe. Consider disabling Shockwave Flash handling in PDF viewers as an additional hardening measure.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2004-1598 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2004-1598 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data