CVE-2018-15942
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 Reader versions 2018.011.20063 and earlier, 2017.011.30102 and earlier, and 2015.006.30452 and earlier have an out-of-bounds read vulnerability. Successful exploitation could lead to information disclosure.
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 confidenceThis is an out-of-bounds read vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat and Reader. The flaw allows an attacker to read memory beyond allocated buffer boundaries, potentially exposing sensitive information from the application's memory space. Successful exploitation requires user interaction, such as opening a specially crafted PDF file.
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>= 15.006.30060, <= 15.006.30452>= 15.008.20082, <= 18.011.20063>= 17.011.30059, <= 17.011.30102>= 15.006.30060, <= 15.006.30452>= 15.008.20082, <= 18.011.20063>= 17.011.30059, <= 17.011.30102CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/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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Identify installed Adobe product and versionOpen Adobe Acrobat or Reader, then go to Help > About Adobe Acrobat (or Reader). Alternatively, in Windows go to Programs and Features and locate the Adobe entry to see the version number.Affected if The installed version falls within these ranges: 15.006.30060 to 15.006.30452, 15.008.20082 to 18.011.20063, or 17.011.30059 to 17.011.30102
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Confirm product type (Acrobat vs Reader)Check whether the installed product is Adobe Acrobat DC or Adobe Reader DC. In Help > About, the product name will be displayed.Affected if Both Adobe Acrobat DC and Adobe Reader DC are affected in the version ranges listed above
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Verify PDF processing capabilityThe vulnerability is triggered when processing a specially crafted PDF file. This is a core function of both Acrobat and Reader - if the application is installed and can open PDF documents, the attack surface exists.Affected if The application is installed and operational, as the vulnerability manifests during PDF parsing operations
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Check for recent security updatesIn the application, go to Help > Check for Updates to see if patches have been applied. Compare your current version against the fixed versions: 2015.006.30452, 2017.011.30102, or 2018.011.20063 and later.Affected if The installed version is older than these fixed versions and falls within the affected ranges
You are affected if Adobe Acrobat DC or Adobe Reader DC is installed and the version number falls within any of the specified vulnerable ranges (15.006.30060-15.006.30452, 15.008.20082-18.011.20063, or 17.011.30059-17.011.30102).
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 dataUpdate Adobe Acrobat and Reader to versions newer than 2018.011.20063, 2017.011.30102, and 2015.006.30452 respectively, or apply the available security patches from Adobe.
- 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-2018-15942 — 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-2018-15942 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
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