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Acrobat DcApplication · Adobe

CVE-2022-28233

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2022-05-11
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 22.001.20085 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
Acrobat Reader DC versions 22.001.20085 (and earlier), 20.005.3031x (and earlier) and 17.012.30205 (and earlier) are affected by a use-after-free vulnerability in the processing of annotations 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 analysis · high confidence

This is a use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC's annotation processing. When annotations in a PDF are processed, memory is freed but then accessed again, leading to arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user.

MitigationUpdate Adobe Acrobat Reader DC to the latest version to patch the vulnerability. Avoid opening untrusted PDF files until the update is applied.

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
Acrobat DcApplication
Affected:>= 15.008.20082, <= 22.001.20085
Acrobat Reader DcApplication
Affected:>= 15.008.20082, <= 22.001.20085
AcrobatApplication
Affected:>= 17.011.30059, <= 17.012.30205>= 20.001.30005, <= 20.005.30314>= 20.001.30005, <= 20.005.30311
Acrobat ReaderApplication
Affected:>= 17.011.30059, <= 17.012.30205>= 20.001.30005, <= 20.005.30314>= 20.001.30005, <= 20.005.30311

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. Identify installed Adobe product
    Check for installed Adobe Acrobat or Reader DC by looking in Add/Remove Programs (appwiz.cpl), or check the installation directory typically at C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat DC\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat DC\
    Affected if Neither Adobe Acrobat DC nor Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is installed, then not affected
  2. Determine exact version number
    Right-click the Acrobat or Reader executable (Acrobat.exe or AcroRd32.exe) in the installation folder, select Properties, and view the File Version on the Details tab
    Affected if The installed version falls within any of these ranges: 15.008.20082 through 22.001.20085, 17.011.30059 through 17.012.30205, 20.001.30005 through 20.005.30314, or 20.001.30005 through 20.005.30311
  3. Confirm product type and channel
    Verify whether the installation is Adobe Acrobat DC, Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, Adobe Acrobat (Classic), or Adobe Acrobat Reader (Classic) by checking the product name in Add/Remove Programs or the folder structure under C:\Program Files\Adobe\
    Affected if Product is Adobe Acrobat or Reader (either DC or Classic) and version is within the affected ranges listed above

User is affected if Adobe Acrobat or Reader (DC or Classic) is installed with a version matching any of the affected version ranges, since the use-after-free flaw exists in the annotation processing component for all these installations within those versions.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 22.001.20085
Interim mitigation

Update Adobe Acrobat Reader DC to the latest version to patch the vulnerability. Avoid opening untrusted PDF files until the update is applied.

Recommended fix High confidence

Acrobat Reader DC/Acrobat DC: version 22.001.20093 or later; 20.005.30320 or later; 17.012.30210 or later

  1. 1. Open Adobe Acrobat Reader DC or Adobe Acrobat
  2. 2. Navigate to Help > Check for Updates (or Help > About Adobe Acrobat Reader)
  3. 3. Allow the application to check for available updates
  4. 4. If updates are available, download and install them
  5. 5. Alternatively, download the latest version from the official Adobe website: https://get.adobe.com/reader/ (for Reader) or https://get.adobe.com/acrobat/ (for Acrobat)
  6. 6. Restart the application after updating
  7. 7. Verify the version by checking Help > About to confirm the update was successful
Caveat Minimal risk - Adobe updates are typically backward compatible with standard PDF workflows

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Acrobat Dc Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2022-28233 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