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AcrobatApplication · Adobe

CVE-2010-2168

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2010-06-30
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
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 9.x before 9.3.3, and 8.x before 8.2.3 on Windows and Mac OS X, allow attackers to execute arbitrary code via a PDF file with crafted Flash content, involving the newfunction (0x44) operator and an "invalid pointer vulnerability" that triggers memory corruption, a different vulnerability than CVE-2010-1285 and CVE-2010-2201.

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:= 9.0= 9.1= 9.1.1= 9.1.2= 9.1.3= 9.2= 9.3= 9.3.1= 9.3.2= 8.0= 8.1= 8.1.1
Acrobat ReaderApplication
Affected:= 9.0= 9.1= 9.1.1= 9.1.2= 9.1.3= 9.2= 9.3= 9.3.1= 9.3.2= 8.0= 8.1= 8.1.1

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
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch www.adobe.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Adobe Acrobat/Reader 9.3.3+ (for 9.x) or 8.2.3+ (for 8.x), or latest current version

  1. Check current Adobe Acrobat or Reader version via Help > About Adobe Acrobat/Reader
  2. Identify if the installed version is 8.x or 9.x
  3. For version 9.x versions before 9.3.3 (including 9.0, 9.1, 9.1.1, 9.1.2): download and install Adobe Acrobat/Reader 9.3.3 or later from Adobe's official website
  4. For version 8.x versions before 8.2.3: download and install Adobe Acrobat/Reader 8.2.3 or later from Adobe's official website
  5. Alternatively, upgrade to the most recent supported version of Adobe Acrobat/Reader for full security coverage
  6. Restart the application after installation
Caveat Major version upgrades may introduce UI changes; test compatibility with existing workflows before broad deployment

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

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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-2010-2168 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
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