Adobe Acrobat Reader DC versions 2020.012.20048 (and earlier), 2020.001.30005 (and earlier) and 2017.011.30175 (and earlier) are affected by a local privilege escalation vulnerability that could enable a user without administrator privileges to delete arbitrary files and potentially execute arbitrary code as SYSTEM. Exploitation of this issue requires an attacker to socially engineer a victim, or the attacker must already have some access to the environment.
This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8, requiring local system access to exploit with relatively low complexity though user interaction is required and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 6 products from adobe, from adobe, from adobe and 3 others, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.
Reported in 2020, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.
2020-11-05T20:15:16.457
2024-11-21T05:14:48.923
Modified
CVSSv3.1: 7.8 (HIGH)
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
8.6
10.0
| Type | Vendor | Product | Version/Range | Vulnerable? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Application | adobe | acrobat | ≤ 20.001.30005 | Yes |
| Application | adobe | acrobat_dc | ≤ 17.011.30175 | Yes |
| Application | adobe | acrobat_dc | ≤ 20.012.20048 | Yes |
| Application | adobe | acrobat_reader | ≤ 20.001.30005 | Yes |
| Application | adobe | acrobat_reader_dc | ≤ 17.011.30175 | Yes |
| Application | adobe | acrobat_reader_dc | ≤ 20.012.20048 | Yes |
| Operating System | apple | macos | - | No |
| Operating System | microsoft | windows | - | No |
SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For adobe's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.