Adobe Illustrator PDF File Parsing Memory Corruption Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

published 2021-08-20 5 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-22642

cvss: 7.8; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 3.0%; EPSS 3.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 87%
public exploits: 0; none known

Adobe Illustrator version 25.2.3 (and earlier) is affected by an memory corruption vulnerability when parsing a specially crafted file. An unauthenticated attacker could leverage this vulnerability to achieve 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.

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: total
Assessed: 18 mo ago (2025-04-23)

Exploit prediction

2.98% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 87% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
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

Affected products

Adobe Illustrator

Classification

Weakness

CWE-788 Access of Memory Location After End of Buffer
CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write

References

helpx.adobe.com /security/products/illustrator/apsb21-42.html
vendor-advisory
zerodayinitiative.com /advisories/ZDI-21-1147/
third-party-advisory, vdb-entry

Sources

CVE List CVE-2021-36009
NVD CVE-2021-36009

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.

Summary