AcrobatApplication · Adobe

CVE-2008-4813

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2008-11-05
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 8.1.2 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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 · unedited
Adobe Reader and Acrobat 8.1.2 and earlier, and before 7.1.1, allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted PDF document that (1) performs unspecified actions on a Collab object that trigger memory corruption, related to a GetCosObj method; or (2) contains a malformed PDF object that triggers memory corruption during parsing.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-399

A legacy NVD category grouping weaknesses in how resources — memory, file handles, connections — are allocated, used, and released. It gathers leaks, exhaustion, and lifecycle bugs under one label rather than naming a single flaw. The fix depends on the specific resource issue, generally pairing acquisition with release and bounding what any request can consume.

General guidance for the resource management errors class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
AcrobatApplication
Affected:<= 8.1.2= 8.1.1
Acrobat ReaderApplication
Affected:<= 8.0

CVSS 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
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 8.1.2
Vendor patch www.adobe.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Adobe Acrobat 8.1.3 or later / Adobe Reader 8.1 or later (or migrate to latest supported version)

  1. 1. Close all Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader instances currently running on the system.
  2. 2. Navigate to the Adobe Acrobat and Reader download page or use the vendor update mechanism.
  3. 3. Download Adobe Acrobat 8.1.3 or later (or migrate to the latest supported Acrobat version for your system).
  4. 4. Download Adobe Reader 8.1 or later (or migrate to the latest supported Reader version for your system).
  5. 5. Install the updated version by running the downloaded installer.
  6. 6. Restart the system to ensure all components are properly updated.
  7. 7. Verify the installed version matches the patched release (8.1.3 for Acrobat, 8.1+ for Reader) by checking Help > About in the application.
Caveat Old PDF forms or scripts dependent on specific legacy behaviors in versions 7.x-8.x may require testing; ensure compatibility with target environment before production deployment

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can identify the exact fixed release, upgrade, and verify it in staging — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

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Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-4813 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2008-4813 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • 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