CVE-2021-44701
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 · uneditedAcrobat Reader DC version 21.007.20099 (and earlier), 20.004.30017 (and earlier) and 17.011.30204 (and earlier) are affected by a use-after-free vulnerability in the processing of Format event actions 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 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 analysisMemory is used after it has been freed, so its contents — now potentially attacker-controlled — drive the program's behaviour. With careful heap grooming this becomes code execution. The fix requires disciplined ownership of memory and often a targeted rework of the object lifecycle.
General guidance for the use after free class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
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>= 21.001.20149, <= 21.007.20099>= 21.001.20149, <= 21.007.20099>= 20.001.30005, <= 20.004.30017>= 17.011.30180, <= 17.011.30204>= 20.001.30005, <= 20.004.30017>= 17.011.30180, <= 17.011.30204CVSS 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
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 · scopedAdobe Acrobat Reader DC 21.008.20065 (or later 21.x); Adobe Acrobat Reader DC 20.005.30040 (or later 20.x); Adobe Acrobat Reader DC 17.012.30100 (or later 17.x)
- 1. Close all Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader instances running on the system
- 2. Navigate to the Adobe Acrobat download page at https://get.adobe.com/reader/ or use your organization's software distribution system
- 3. Download the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (or Acrobat DC if applicable)
- 4. Run the installer with appropriate privileges
- 5. Follow the on-screen installation prompts to complete the update
- 6. After installation, verify the version by opening Acrobat Reader, going to Help > About Adobe Acrobat Reader DC
- 7. Confirm the installed version is 21.008.20065 or later for 2021 track, 20.005.30040 or later for 2020 track, or 17.012.30100 or later for 2017 track
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-44701 — 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-2021-44701 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data