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ExploitedIn CISA KEV

CVE-2023-21608

Exploitation confirmed. First attested on 2023-10-10 by CISA-ADP, CISA KEV, GCVE · kevintel.

  • Published2023-01-18
  • WeaknessCWE-416

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

Adobe Acrobat Reader versions 22.003.20282 (and earlier), 22.003.20281 (and earlier) and 20.005.30418 (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.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2023-01-1819:15CVE publishedNVD
  2. 2023-10-10Added to the CISA KEV catalogCISA KEV
  3. 2023-10-10Listed as exploited by GCVEGCVE
  4. 2023-10-10Exploitation first reportedCISA KEV
  5. 2025-02-0416:09SSVC exploitation set to activeCISA-ADP

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-11-03 21:37 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2023-21608?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2023-21608?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
Adobe acrobat dcversion to verify
BranchAffectedFixed in
22.3≥ 15.008.20082, ≤ 22.003.20282no fix published
22.3≥ 15.008.20082, ≤ 22.003.20281no fix published
Adobe acrobat reader dcversion to verify
BranchAffectedFixed in
22.3≥ 15.008.20082, ≤ 22.003.20282no fix published
22.3≥ 15.008.20082, ≤ 22.003.20281no fix published
Adobe acrobatversion to verify
BranchAffectedFixed in
20.x≥ 20.001.30005, ≤ 20.005.30418no fix published

1 more product in the sources.

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Products declared by the CNA1 product

As adobe, the CNA that assigned this CVE, declared them in the CVE record; versions as written.

  • Adobe Acrobat Reader
    Affected
    • ≤ 20.005.30418no fix statedcustom
    • ≤ 22.003.20282no fix statedcustom
    • ≤ 22.003.20281no fix statedcustom
    • ≤ Noneno fix statedcustom

Source: the CNA record (CVE Program), © The MITRE Corporation,CVE Terms of UseCVE recordupdated 2023-01-18

Fix

  1. CISA’s required action: Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.due 2023-10-31

Advisories and patches

Detection

read 2026-11-03 22:42 UTC
Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
2 repositories, unverifiedhacksysteam/CVE-2023-21608Malwareman007/CVE-2023-21608
PoC-in-GitHub
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerability

Date Added
2023-10-10
Patch Due Date
2023-10-31
Ransomware Use
Unknown
Required Action
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2023-01-18
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Analyzed
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-w7q6-mhgp-7c2h

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-21608?

Adobe Acrobat Reader versions 22.003.20282 (and earlier), 22.003.20281 (and earlier) and 20.005.30418 (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.

Is CVE-2023-21608 actively exploited?

Yes. CVE-2023-21608 is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, meaning it has been confirmed as actively exploited in the wild. CISA requires federal agencies to patch by 2023-10-31.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2023-21608?

CVE-2023-21608 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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Sources for this record