CVE-2021-34280
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 · uneditedPolaris Office v9.103.83.44230 is affected by a Uninitialized Pointer Vulnerability in PolarisOffice.exe and EngineDLL.dll that may cause a Remote Code Execution. To exploit the vulnerability, someone must open a crafted PDF 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 · moderate confidenceAn uninitialized pointer vulnerability exists in PolarisOffice.exe and EngineDLL.dll of Polaris Office v9.103.83.44230. When a user opens a specially crafted PDF file, the uninitialized pointer can be exploited to achieve remote code execution.
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= 9.103.83.44230CVSS 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
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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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Verify Polaris Office installationCheck if Polaris Office is installed on the system by looking for PolarisOffice.exe in common installation directories (typically C:\Program Files\Polaris Office or C:\Program Files (x86)\Polaris Office) or by querying installed programs via Windows Registry (HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall)Affected if Polaris Office is not installed on the system
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Identify installed Polaris Office versionRight-click on PolarisOffice.exe in the installation directory, select Properties, then view the Details tab to see the File Version. Alternatively, use PowerShell: Get-Item 'C:\Program Files\Polaris Office\PolarisOffice.exe' | Select-Object VersionInfoAffected if The installed version matches 9.103.83.44230 exactly
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Confirm vulnerable DLL existsVerify that EngineDLL.dll exists in the Polaris Office installation directory (typically in a subfolder such as bin or core within the main installation path)Affected if EngineDLL.dll is present in the Polaris Office installation directory and version matches 9.103.83.44230
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Check for recent PDF processing activityReview system logs, Windows Event Viewer (Application and Security logs), or any available endpoint detection logs for recent PDF files opened with Polaris Office. Correlate with any suspicious file access timestampsAffected if Users have recently opened PDF files using Polaris Office on this system
The system is affected only if Polaris Office version 9.103.83.44230 is installed and users open untrusted PDF files with it.
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 dataUsers should avoid opening PDF files from untrusted sources until a patch is available. Organizations should consider deploying additional email/file filtering to block suspicious PDF attachments.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-34280 — 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-2021-34280 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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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.
- 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