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Acrobat DcApplication · Adobe

CVE-2018-15952

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-10-12
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 18.011.20063 or later.
See remediation →
81/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges

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 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 write vulnerability. Successful exploitation could lead to arbitrary code execution.

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 confidence

Adobe Acrobat and Reader contain an out-of-bounds write vulnerability where the software writes data beyond allocated memory buffer boundaries when processing maliciously crafted PDF files. This memory corruption can be leveraged by attackers to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user.

MitigationUpdate Adobe Acrobat and Reader to versions newer than 2018.011.20063, 2017.011.30102, and 2015.006.30452 respectively, or apply available security patches from Adobe's official security bulletin.

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
Acrobat DcApplication
Affected:>= 15.006.30060, <= 15.006.30452>= 15.008.20082, <= 18.011.20063>= 17.011.30059, <= 17.011.30102
Acrobat Reader DcApplication
Affected:>= 15.006.30060, <= 15.006.30452>= 15.008.20082, <= 18.011.20063>= 17.011.30059, <= 17.011.30102

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm Adobe Acrobat or Reader is installed
    On Windows, check Start menu for Adobe Acrobat/Reader entries or look in C:\Program Files\Adobe. On macOS, check /Applications for Adobe Acrobat/Reader. Alternatively, check Windows Registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Adobe for product entries.
    Affected if Adobe Acrobat DC or Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is present on the system
  2. Determine the exact installed version
    On Windows: Open the application, go to Help > About Adobe Acrobat/Reader to view the exact version number displayed in the dialog. Alternatively, check the Windows Registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\Version or similar path for the Version value. On macOS: Right-click the application in /Applications, select Get Info, and note the version shown.
    Affected if Version displayed matches one of the affected ranges
  3. Compare installed version against affected ranges
    Review the version number obtained and compare against these vulnerable ranges: 15.006.30060 through 15.006.30452; 15.008.20082 through 18.011.20063; and 17.011.30059 through 17.011.30102. Note that versions 15.x, 17.x, and 18.x within these ranges are affected.
    Affected if Installed version falls within any of the specified vulnerable version ranges
  4. Verify the application can process PDF files
    Confirm that the software has PDF processing capability enabled. By default, both Acrobat and Reader can open and process PDF files. No additional configuration check is needed unless the application has been restricted via Group Policy or third-party software.
    Affected if The software is capable of opening PDF files, which is the default state for Acrobat and Reader

The user is affected if Adobe Acrobat DC or Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is installed with a version number matching any of the three 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.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 18.011.20063
Interim mitigation

Update Adobe Acrobat and Reader to versions newer than 2018.011.20063, 2017.011.30102, and 2015.006.30452 respectively, or apply available security patches from Adobe's official security bulletin.

Fix this in Acrobat Dc Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,600
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2018-15952 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