Reference page — cumulative record through Monday, October 5, 2026 UTC. Reference pages update as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record.

CVE-2021-21017

CVE-2021-21017HIGH

Adobe Acrobat Reader — Acrobat Reader DC Heap-based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability Could Lead To Arbitrary Code Execution

  AV  AC  PR  UI  S  C  I  A   CVSS    EPSS   %ile   KEV
   N   L   N   R  U  H  H  H    8.8   .8633   99.7   YES

AFFECTED
  Product         Versions       Fixed
  Acrobat Reader  unspecified –  —

TIMELINE
  Dec 18  Reserved by adobe
  Feb 11  Published (CNA: adobe)
  Nov 3   Added to CISA KEV, remediation due 2021-11-17

CWE-122 · CNA: adobe · CVSS v3.1 · 2 references · KEV due November 17, 2021

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 a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability. 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.

Lifecycle

Complete event history — 3 events, chronological
Date	Event	Detail
December 18, 2020	Reserved	Reserved by adobe
February 11, 2021	Published	Published (CNA: adobe)
November 3, 2021	KEV ADDED	Added to CISA KEV, remediation due 2021-11-17

Affected

Affected products and packages — 1 row
Vendor	Product / Package	Ecosystem	Version introduced	Fixed
Adobe	Acrobat Reader	—	unspecified	—

Weaknesses

CWE-122

References (2)

https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/acrobat/apsb21-09.html [x_refsource_MISC]
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2021-21017 [government-resource]

Authoritative record: CVE-2021-21017 at cve.org

Vendors: adobe

Weaknesses: CWE-122

About this page

This is a reference page, not a dated page of record. It assembles the complete lifecycle of CVE-2021-21017 from the CVE Program record, NVD enrichment, the CISA KEV catalog, EPSS, and OSV advisories. The box score's numbers (CVSS, EPSS, KEV status) are current as of Monday, October 5, 2026 UTC and are re-derived as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record. The authoritative source for this identifier is cve.org.