CVE-2020-9713
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 Acrobat and Reader versions 2020.009.20074 and earlier, 2020.001.30002, 2017.011.30171 and earlier, and 2015.006.30523 and earlier are affected by an out-of-bounds read vulnerability that could lead to disclosure of sensitive memory. An attacker could leverage this vulnerability to disclose sensitive information. 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 confidenceThis is an out-of-bounds read vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat and Reader. When a victim opens a specially crafted malicious PDF file, the application reads memory outside allocated buffer bounds, potentially exposing sensitive information from the application's memory space.
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<= 20.009.20074>= 15.000.0000, <= 15.006.30523>= 17.009.20044, <= 17.011.30171= 20.001.30002= 20.001.30002<= 20.009.20074>= 15.000.0000, <= 15.006.30523>= 17.009.20044, <= 17.011.30171CVSS 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
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
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 Acrobat or Reader is installedOn Windows, check for the presence of Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader in Programs and Features, or check common installation paths such as C:\Program Files\Adobe\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Affected if Either Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader is installed on the system
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Determine the installed version of Adobe Acrobat DCOpen Adobe Acrobat DC, go to Help > About Adobe Acrobat DC, or right-click the Acrobat icon and select Help > About to view the exact version numberAffected if The version displayed is <= 20.009.20074, or = 20.001.30002, or falls within 15.000.0000 to 15.006.30523, or falls within 17.009.20044 to 17.011.30171
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Determine the installed version of Adobe Acrobat Reader DCOpen Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, go to Help > About Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, or right-click the Reader icon and select Help > About to view the exact version numberAffected if The version displayed is <= 20.009.20074, or falls within 15.000.0000 to 15.006.30523, or falls within 17.009.20044 to 17.011.30171
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Determine the installed version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (classic)Open Adobe Acrobat Reader, go to Help > About Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the exact version numberAffected if The version displayed is exactly 20.001.30002
A user is affected if Adobe Acrobat DC, Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, or Adobe Acrobat Reader is installed with a version matching any of the listed affected ranges.
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 dataApply the official Adobe security update/patch for Acrobat and Reader. Additionally, enforce policies to prevent opening untrusted or unexpected PDF files from unknown sources.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-9713 — 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-2020-9713 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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