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After EffectsApplication · Adobe

CVE-2026-21326

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-02-10
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 25.6.4 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
After Effects versions 25.6 and earlier are affected by a Use After Free 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 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

Adobe After Effects versions 25.6 and earlier contain a Use After Free (UAF) vulnerability. This memory corruption flaw allows an attacker to manipulate freed memory, potentially achieving arbitrary code execution when a user opens a specially crafted malicious file.

MitigationUpdate Adobe After Effects to a version newer than 25.6 via the Adobe Creative Cloud desktop application or enterprise deployment tools, and exercise caution when opening files from untrusted 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
After EffectsApplication
Affected:< 25.6.4

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:3.1/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. Verify Adobe After Effects is installed
    Check common installation directories or use system package manager. On Windows, look in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects [version] or check the Windows registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\After Effects. On macOS, check /Applications/Adobe After Effects/ or use Spotlight.
    Affected if Adobe After Effects is present on the system
  2. Determine installed After Effects version
    Open After Effects and navigate to Help > About After Effects to display the full version number, or locate the version info in the application bundle on macOS (Right-click Adobe After Effects.app > Get Info).
    Affected if The displayed version is 25.6.4 or lower, or the version cannot be determined as higher than 25.6.4
  3. Compare version against affected range
    Note the exact version number (for example, 25.6, 25.6.1, 25.6.2, 25.6.3, or 25.6.4) and compare it to the threshold: any version below 25.6.4 is affected.
    Affected if The installed version falls below 25.6.4 (for example, 25.6, 25.5, 24.x, or earlier)
  4. Identify if untrusted file handling is typical
    Review typical workflow: determine whether the user commonly opens project files, footage, or assets from external or untrusted sources such as internet downloads, client submissions, or shared media.
    Affected if The workflow involves opening files from untrusted sources, as exploitation requires the user to open a specially crafted malicious file

If Adobe After Effects is installed and the version is below 25.6.4, the environment is affected by this UAF vulnerability.

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 25.6.4 or later
Fixed in 25.6.4
Interim mitigation

Update Adobe After Effects to a version newer than 25.6 via the Adobe Creative Cloud desktop application or enterprise deployment tools, and exercise caution when opening files from untrusted sources.

Recommended fix High confidence

After Effects 25.6.4 or later

  1. Open Adobe Creative Cloud desktop application
  2. Navigate to the 'Updates' section in the left sidebar
  3. Locate After Effects in the available updates list
  4. Click 'Update' to install the latest version
  5. Alternatively, download After Effects version 25.6.4 or later directly from helpx.adobe.com
  6. Verify the installed version by opening After Effects and checking Help > About After Effects

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

Fix this in After Effects Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,950
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,120.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2026-21326 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