CVE-2021-42524
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 Animate version 21.0.9 (and earlier) are affected by an out-of-bounds write vulnerability that could result in arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user. Exploitation of this issue requires user interaction in that a victim must open a malicious BMP 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 Animate versions 21.0.9 and earlier contain an out-of-bounds write vulnerability that can be triggered when a user opens a specially crafted malicious BMP file. This memory corruption issue allows arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user without requiring elevated privileges.
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<= 21.0.9CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check if Adobe Animate is installedLook for Adobe Animate installation in typical locations such as C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Animate 2021 or check Add/Remove Programs in Windows Control Panel for an Adobe Animate entryAffected if Adobe Animate is present on the system
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Determine the installed versionRight-click the Adobe Animate executable (animate.exe) in the installation folder, select Properties, and view the Details tab for the Product Version, or check the version shown in Add/Remove ProgramsAffected if The version displayed is 21.0.9 or earlier (any version up to and including 21.0.9)
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Verify the vulnerability trigger conditionConfirm that Adobe Animate can open or process BMP image files, which is a built-in capability of the software for importing assets into animationsAffected if The software can process BMP files (this is enabled by default in vulnerable versions)
If Adobe Animate is installed with version 21.0.9 or earlier and can process BMP files, the environment is affected by this CVE.
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 · scopedUpgrade Adobe Animate to a version newer than 21.0.9 when a patch is available. Until then, exercise caution when opening BMP files from untrusted sources.
Adobe Animate 21.0.10 or later
- Open Adobe Creative Cloud desktop application or visit adobe.com/downloads
- Navigate to Adobe Animate (formerly Flash) in your installed apps
- Check for available updates - the fix is in version 21.0.10 or later
- If update is available, click Update to download and install the patched version
- Alternatively, download Adobe Animate 21.0.10 or later directly from adobe.com/products/adobe-animate.html
- Launch Adobe Animate after update installation
- Verify the installed version by going to Help > About Adobe Animate to confirm version 21.0.10 or higher is installed
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation3.0 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-2021-42524 — 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-2021-42524 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