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Acrobat DcApplication · Adobe

CVE-2019-8023

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-08-20
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 15.006.30499 / 17.011.30144 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 Acrobat and Reader versions 2019.012.20035 and earlier, 2019.012.20035 and earlier, 2017.011.30142 and earlier, 2017.011.30143 and earlier, 2015.006.30497 and earlier, and 2015.006.30498 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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-787

The program writes past the bounds of a buffer, overwriting adjacent memory an attacker can turn to their advantage. Crafted input can overwrite control data and redirect execution. Remediation is validating every index and length before a write, plus modern memory-safety mitigations.

General guidance for the out-of-bounds write 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
Acrobat DcApplication
Affected:>= 15.006.30060, < 15.006.30499>= 15.008.20082, < 19.012.20036>= 17.011.30059, < 17.011.30144
Acrobat Reader DcApplication
Affected:>= 15.006.30060, < 15.006.30499>= 15.008.20082, < 19.012.20036>= 17.011.30059, < 17.011.30144

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
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 15.006.30499 / 17.011.30144 / 19.012.20036 or later
Fixed in 15.006.3049917.011.3014419.012.20036
Vendor patch helpx.adobe.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Adobe Acrobat/Reader 2019.021.20058 (Continuous) or 2017.011.30145 (Classic 2017) or 2015.006.30506 (Classic 2015)

  1. 1. Close all instances of Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat Reader
  2. 2. Navigate to the Adobe security bulletin at https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/acrobat/apsb19-41.html
  3. 3. Identify your current installed version by opening Acrobat/Reader and going to Help > About Adobe Acrobat/Reader
  4. 4. Download the appropriate fixed version for your product line: For Continuous track: upgrade to version 2019.021.20058 or later; For Classic track (2017): upgrade to version 2017.011.30145 or later; For Classic track (2015): upgrade to version 2015.006.30506 or later
  5. 5. Run the downloaded installer and follow the prompts to complete the installation
  6. 6. Restart your computer after installation completes
  7. 7. Verify the installation by checking Help > About to confirm the version matches or exceeds the fixed versions listed above
Caveat Adobe recommends phased deployment for enterprise environments; verify compatibility with existing PDF workflows and plugins before mass deployment

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

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $3,550. Get the upgrade done

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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-2019-8023 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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