dbcve.org
Acrobat DcApplication · Adobe

CVE-2020-3751

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-02-13
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 19.021.20061 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 2019.021.20061 and earlier, 2017.011.30156 and earlier, 2017.011.30156 and earlier, and 2015.006.30508 and earlier have an use after free 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-416

Memory is used after it has been freed, so its contents — now potentially attacker-controlled — drive the program's behaviour. With careful heap grooming this becomes code execution. The fix requires disciplined ownership of memory and often a targeted rework of the object lifecycle.

General guidance for the use after free 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, <= 15.006.30508>= 15.008.20082, <= 19.021.20061>= 17.011.30059, <= 17.011.30156
Acrobat Reader DcApplication
Affected:>= 15.006.30060, <= 15.006.30508>= 15.008.20082, <= 19.021.20061>= 17.011.30059, <= 17.011.30156

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 a release after 19.021.20061
Vendor patch helpx.adobe.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Acrobat DC/Reader DC 2015.006.30509+ (Classic track), 17.011.30157+ (2017 track), or 2020.001.30062+ (2020 track)

  1. 1. Determine your currently installed Adobe Acrobat or Reader version by opening the application, going to Help > About Adobe Acrobat/Reader
  2. 2. Identify which version track you are on (2015, 2017, or 2019/2020) based on your current version number
  3. 3. For Acrobat DC/Acrobat Reader DC 2015.x (versions 15.006.30060 through 15.006.30508): Upgrade to version 2015.006.30509 or later
  4. 4. For Acrobat DC/Acrobat Reader DC 2017.x (versions 17.011.30059 through 17.011.30156): Upgrade to version 17.011.30157 or later
  5. 5. For Acrobat DC/Acrobat Reader DC 2019.x (versions 15.008.20082 through 19.021.20061): Upgrade to version 2020.001.30062 or later
  6. 6. Download the appropriate updated version from the official Adobe download page at https://get.adobe.com/reader/ (for Reader) or https://get.adobe.com/acrobat/ (for Acrobat)
  7. 7. Close all Adobe applications before running the installer
  8. 8. Install the updated version and restart your system
Caveat Upgrade should be seamless for most users; some legacy features may be deprecated in newer major versions

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

We can identify the exact fixed release, upgrade, and verify it in staging — typical engagement from $3,550. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-3751 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2020-3751 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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