Adobe After Effects WAV File Parsing Memory Corruption Arbitrary Code Execution

published 2021-11-18 4 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-27919

cvss: 7.8; version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 2.2%; EPSS 2.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 82%
public exploits: 0; none known

Adobe After Effects version 18.4.1 (and earlier) is affected by a memory corruption vulnerability due to insecure handling of a malicious WAV file, potentially resulting in arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user. User interaction is required in that the victim must open a specially crafted file to exploit this vulnerability.

Patch / fix

links 1

helpx.adobe.com/security/products/after_effects/apsb21-79.html advisory

CISA SSVC

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

Exploit prediction

2.19% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 82% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.0	7.8	CVSS:3.0/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 After Effects

Classification

Weakness

CWE-788 Access of Memory Location After End of Buffer
CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

References

helpx.adobe.com /security/products/after_effects/apsb21-79.html
patch, vendor-advisory

Sources

CVE List CVE-2021-40754
NVD CVE-2021-40754

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