CVE-2021-40767
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 Character Animator version 4.4 (and earlier) is affected by an Access of Memory Location After End of Buffer vulnerability when parsing a specially crafted file. An unauthenticated attacker could leverage this vulnerability to achieve an application denial-of-service in the context of the current user. 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 confidenceAdobe Character Animator versions 4.4 and earlier contain an out-of-bounds memory access vulnerability triggered when parsing specially crafted project files. An attacker can cause the application to crash by inducing a user to open a malicious file, resulting in denial-of-service in the context of the current user session.
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<= 4.4CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 Character Animator is installedOn Windows, check for the presence of the Adobe Character Animator application in Program Files or via Add/Remove Programs. On macOS, check the /Applications folder for Adobe Character Animator.app.Affected if Adobe Character Animator is present on the system
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Determine the installed version of Adobe Character AnimatorLaunch the application and navigate to Help > About Adobe Character Animator, or run the executable with a version flag if available from command line.Affected if The displayed version is 4.4 or earlier (any version up to and including 4.4)
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Verify the vulnerability trigger conditionThe vulnerability is triggered when parsing specially crafted .chproj project files. This is a file parsing vulnerability that occurs during project file loading.Affected if A user with Adobe Character Animator version 4.4 or earlier opens a malicious .chproj file, causing an out-of-bounds memory access and application crash
A user is affected if Adobe Character Animator version 4.4 or earlier is installed and a specially crafted .chproj project file is opened.
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.
dbcve · scopedUsers should avoid opening untrusted or unexpected .chproj files, and organizations should deploy the vendor patch (Adobe security update) once released. Consider application whitelisting to block execution of unapproved files.
Adobe Character Animator 4.5 or later
- Open Adobe Creative Cloud or Adobe Character Animator
- Navigate to the Updates or Apps section
- Check for available updates to Adobe Character Animator
- Install any available update that is version 4.5 or later
- Restart Character Animator after the update completes
- Verify the installed version by going to Help > About Adobe Character Animator
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,200.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-40767 — 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-2021-40767 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