CVE-2020-9678
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 · uneditedAdobe Prelude versions 9.0 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 · moderate confidenceAdobe Prelude versions 9.0 and earlier contain an out-of-bounds write vulnerability that allows an attacker to write data beyond the allocated memory buffer. This memory corruption can be leveraged to achieve arbitrary code execution when a user opens a specially crafted file.
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<= 9.0CVSS 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:3.1/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check if Adobe Prelude is installedOn Windows, check for the presence of Adobe Prelude in Program Files or Program Files (x86). On macOS, check /Applications for Adobe Prelude. Alternatively, use registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Prelude or HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\Prelude.exe on Windows.Affected if Adobe Prelude software is found on the system
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Retrieve the installed Adobe Prelude versionOn Windows, locate the Prelude.exe file in the installation directory, right-click and select Properties, then view the Details tab for the Product Version. On Windows, you can also query: reg query "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Prelude" /v VersionAffected if Version returned is 9.0 or earlier (any version number <= 9.0)
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Verify the file open capability is presentConfirm that Adobe Prelude can open project files, media files, or other file types that could contain specially crafted content. The vulnerability triggers when opening a maliciously crafted file.Affected if Users can open external files within Adobe Prelude (default functionality)
If Adobe Prelude version 9.0 or earlier is installed and users can open files, the environment is vulnerable to this out-of-bounds write flaw.
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 Prelude to a version newer than 9.0. Apply the official Adobe patch as soon as possible, as the CVSS 8.8 score indicates this vulnerability is exploitable remotely with low complexity.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-9678 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
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-2020-9678 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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