AuditionApplication · Adobe

CVE-2021-40735

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2022-03-16
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 14.4 or later.
See remediation →
81/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges

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 Audition version 14.4 (and earlier) is affected by a memory corruption vulnerability, potentially resulting in arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability.

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 confidence

Adobe Audition versions 14.4 and earlier contain a memory corruption vulnerability that can potentially be exploited to achieve arbitrary code execution. Exploitation requires user interaction, likely through opening a specially crafted malicious file within the application.

MitigationUpdate Adobe Audition to the latest patched version to remediate this vulnerability. Until patched, avoid opening untrusted audio files from unknown sources.

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
AuditionApplication
Affected:<= 14.4

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check Adobe Audition installed version
    Open Adobe Audition, then go to Help > About Adobe Audition to display the version number. Alternatively, check the Windows Registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Audition\ or look at the executable properties of Audition.exe in the installation folder (typically C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Audition 2021\ or similar).
    Affected if The version displayed is 14.4 or any version lower than 14.4 (e.g., 14.3, 14.2, 14.0).
  2. Determine if the patch has been applied
    Check if a newer version than 14.4 is installed. If the system has auto-updated through Adobe Creative Cloud, the version may be 14.5 or later.
    Affected if No update to version 14.5 or later has been applied, meaning the installed version remains at 14.4 or below.
  3. Verify source of recently opened audio files
    Review recently opened or imported audio project files, session files, or audio clips. Check if any files originated from untrusted or unknown sources.
    Affected if The vulnerability requires user interaction by opening a specially crafted malicious file; if such a file was opened, exploitation becomes possible.

You are affected if Adobe Audition version 14.4 or earlier is installed and you have opened or might open audio files from untrusted sources.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 14.4
Interim mitigation

Update Adobe Audition to the latest patched version to remediate this vulnerability. Until patched, avoid opening untrusted audio files from unknown sources.

Fix this in Audition Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $890
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,424.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-40735 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-40735 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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