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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2008-2992 kev+ ransomware in the critical feed json

Stack-based buffer overflow in Adobe Acrobat and Reader 8.1.2 and earlier allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a PDF file…

published 2008-11-04 18 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2008-2982

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Exploited
added 2022-03-03, used in ransomware
epss
99.8%
EPSS 99.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 99.9%
public exploits
6
Metasploit, Exploit-DB

Summary

Stack-based buffer overflow in Adobe Acrobat and Reader 8.1.2 and earlier allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a PDF file that calls the util.printf JavaScript function with a crafted format string argument, a related issue to CVE-2008-1104.

Patch / fix

cisa required action Apply updates per vendor instructions.

  • acroread RHEL 3 EXTRAS 8.1.3-1
  • acroread RHEL 4 EXTRAS 8.1.3-1.el4
  • acroread RHEL 5 EXTRAS 8.1.3-1.el5
  • acroread-plugin RHEL 3 EXTRAS 8.1.3-1
  • acroread-plugin RHEL 4 EXTRAS 8.1.3-1.el4
  • acroread-plugin RHEL 5 EXTRAS 8.1.3-1.el5

red hat advisories RHSA-2008:0974

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2008-2992 updated

Reader: JavaScript util.printf() function buffer overflow

  • Red Hat Desktop version 3 Extras acroread 8.1.3-1, acroread-plugin 8.1.3-1 Red Hat Desktop version 4 Extras acroread 8.1.3-1.el4, acroread-plugin 8.1.3-1.el4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 3 Extras acroread 8.1.3-1, acroread-plugin 8.1.3-1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4 Extras acroread 8.1.3-1.el4, acroread-plugin 8.1.3-1.el4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Supplementary (v. 5) acroread 8.1.3-1.el5, acroread-plugin 8.1.3-1.el5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 3 Extras acroread 8.1.3-1, acroread-plugin 8.1.3-1
    +4 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 4 Extras acroread 8.1.3-1.el4, acroread-plugin 8.1.3-1.el4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Supplementary (v. 5) acroread 8.1.3-1.el5, acroread-plugin 8.1.3-1.el5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 3 Extras acroread 8.1.3-1, acroread-plugin 8.1.3-1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 4 Extras acroread 8.1.3-1.el4, acroread-plugin 8.1.3-1.el4
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2008:0974

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Timeline

  1. First public exploit (Metasploit exploit/windows/browser/adobe_utilprintf)
  2. Published
  3. Added to CISA KEV
  4. CISA patch deadline
  5. CISA SSVC: exploitation active

Known exploited

Added
4 y ago
Patch by
2022-03-24 (4 y ago)
Ransomware
Known to be used in ransomware campaigns
Required action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Vendor, product
Adobe, Acrobat and Reader
CISA name
Adobe Reader and Acrobat Input Validation Vulnerability

ATT&CK techniques

How it is exploited and what it leads to, in MITRE ATT&CK terms.

kev release 2025-07-28, att&ck v16.1. KEV to ATT&CK mappings by the MITRE Center for Threat-Informed Defense (Mappings Explorer, Apache-2.0). © 2026 The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation. Terms of use

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Active, exploited in the wild
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
20 mo ago

Exploit prediction

99.79% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.9% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 9.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.