CVE-2020-24428
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 · uneditedAcrobat Reader DC versions 2020.012.20048 (and earlier), 2020.001.30005 (and earlier) and 2017.011.30175 (and earlier) for macOS are affected by a time-of-check time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition vulnerability that could result in local privilege escalation. Exploitation of this issue requires user interaction in that a victim must open a malicious file.
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 confidenceAdobe Acrobat Reader DC for macOS contains a time-of-check time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition vulnerability. When a user opens a maliciously crafted PDF file, the race condition can be exploited to achieve local privilege escalation, allowing an attacker to gain elevated system privileges.
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<= 20.001.30005<= 17.011.30175<= 20.012.20048<= 20.001.30005<= 17.011.30175<= 20.012.20048CVSS 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
- High
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is installedOpen Terminal and run: ls /Applications | grep -i adobeAffected if Adobe Acrobat Reader DC or Adobe Acrobat is not present in Applications, the vulnerability does not apply
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Determine installed application version on macOSRun: defaults read /Applications/Adobe\ Acrobat\ Reader\ DC.app/Contents/Info CFBundleShortVersionString 2>/dev/null || defaults read /Applications/Adobe\ Acrobat\ DC.app/Contents/Info CFBundleShortVersionStringAffected if The command returns no version number, indicating the application is not installed or path differs
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Compare installed version against affected rangesCompare the version from step 2 against: Acrobat/Reader <= 20.001.30005; Acrobat DC/Reader DC <= 17.011.30175 or <= 20.012.20048Affected if Installed version is at or below any of these thresholds: 20.001.30005, 17.011.30175, or 20.012.20048
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Confirm PDF handling capability is enabledVerify the application can open PDF files by checking: ls /Applications/Adobe\ Acrobat\ Reader\ DC.app/Contents/Plug-ins/ | grep -i pdf or simply attempt to open any PDF with the applicationAffected if The application has PDF opening capability (default state) and version is in affected range
User is affected if Adobe Acrobat Reader DC or Adobe Acrobat is installed with a version at or below 20.001.30005, 17.011.30175, or 20.012.20048 on macOS and the application retains default PDF handling functionality.
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 Reader DC to a version later than 2020.012.20048, 2020.001.30005, or 2017.011.30175 respectively, or apply the latest available patch from Adobe. Until patched, avoid opening untrusted PDF files from unknown sources.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-24428 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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