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CVE-2021-21045Acrobat Reader DC Improper Installer Access Control Vulnerability Could Lead To Privilege Escalation
- 8.2HighCVSS base score
- 1.8%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 21% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
Acrobat Reader DC versions versions 2020.013.20074 (and earlier), 2020.001.30018 (and earlier) and 2017.011.30188 (and earlier) are affected by an improper access control vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker could leverage this vulnerability to elevate privileges in the context of the current user.
Timeline
ID reserved
By adobe
- 55 days later
· 55 days later
Published
- 4 years later
· 4 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| adobeCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High8.2 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High8.2 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 1.8% · top 21% of all CVEs (14 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
Loading the EPSS history…
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.2.
Affected products
- affected unspecified – ≤ 2020.013.20074
- affected unspecified – ≤ 2020.001.30018
- affected unspecified – ≤ 2017.011.30188
- affected unspecified – ≤ None
References
References1
- https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/acrobat/apsb21-09.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2021-8436 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2021-21045)Record last updated .