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AcrobatApplication · Adobe

CVE-2018-4888

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-02-27
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 18.009.20050 or later.
See remediation →
95/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable 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
An issue was discovered in Adobe Acrobat Reader 2018.009.20050 and earlier versions, 2017.011.30070 and earlier versions, 2015.006.30394 and earlier versions. This vulnerability is an instance of a use after free vulnerability. The vulnerability is triggered by a crafted PDF file that can cause a memory access violation exception in the XFA engine because of a dangling reference left as a consequence of freeing an object in the computation that manipulates internal nodes in a graph representation of a document object model used in XFA. 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

Use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat Reader's XFA engine where a crafted PDF file frees an object during DOM manipulation, leaving a dangling pointer that can be reused, potentially allowing arbitrary code execution.

MitigationApply the vendor-released security patch by updating Adobe Acrobat Reader to a version beyond 2018.009.20050/2017.011.30070/2015.006.30394 as appropriate.

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
AcrobatApplication
Affected:>= 17.0, <= 17.011.30070
Acrobat DcApplication
Affected:>= -, <= 18.009.20050>= 15.0, <= 15.006.30394
Acrobat ReaderApplication
Affected:>= 17.0, <= 17.011.30070
Acrobat Reader DcApplication
Affected:>= -, <= 18.009.20050>= 15.0, <= 15.006.30394

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

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/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. Verify Adobe Acrobat or Reader is installed
    Check the Windows registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat or HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Adobe\Acrobat, or look for the application in Program Files/Program Files (x86)
    Affected if Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat Reader is installed on the system
  2. Determine installed Acrobat/Reader version number
    Open Adobe Acrobat/Reader, go to Help > About Adobe Acrobat Reader, or check the registry value 'Version' under the product's install key
    Affected if Version falls within any of these ranges: 17.0 to 17.011.30070, 15.0 to 15.006.30394, or any version up to 18.009.20050 (for DC variants)
  3. Confirm XFA engine is enabled
    In Reader/Acrobat, go to Edit > Preferences > Forms and verify 'Enable Adobe XML Forms Architecture (XFA)' is checked, or check registry value 'bEnableXFA' under the application preferences
    Affected if XFA support is enabled - the vulnerability only applies when XFA processing is active
  4. Verify PDF handling with XFA forms is possible
    Attempt to open a PDF that contains XFA form elements, or check if the application has loaded XFA-related DLLs (such as XFAcore.dll) in memory during PDF processing
    Affected if XFA-enabled PDFs can be processed by the application

You are affected if Adobe Acrobat or Reader is installed with a version within the affected ranges (17.x up to 17.011.30070, 15.x up to 15.006.30394, or DC versions up to 18.009.20050) AND the XFA engine feature is enabled in the application preferences.

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 18.009.20050
Interim mitigation

Apply the vendor-released security patch by updating Adobe Acrobat Reader to a version beyond 2018.009.20050/2017.011.30070/2015.006.30394 as appropriate.

Fix this in Acrobat Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
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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-2018-4888 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