Cyber Resilience

CVE-2011-0611

Memory Safety in Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0 – 9.4.4

CISA KEVActive ExploitationEUVD ExploitedPublic PoCMemory Safety
Published
13 April 2011
Modified
21 April 2026
KEV Added
03 March 2022
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 8.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.94 99.8th percentile
Risk Priority 90 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2011-0611 is a high-severity Type Confusion (CWE-843) vulnerability in Apple Mac Os X. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked in the top 0.2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2011-0611 is a type confusion vulnerability (CWE-843) in the handling of Flash content that manifests through a size inconsistency in a "group of included constants," custom ActionScript prototype modifications, and improper Date object processing. It affects Adobe Flash Player versions before 10.2.154.27 on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris (and 10.2.156.12 and earlier on Android), Adobe AIR before 2.6.19140, and the Authplay.dll/AuthPlayLib.bundle component in Adobe Reader 9.x before 9.4.4 and 10.x through 10.0.1 on Windows as well as corresponding versions of Reader and Acrobat on Mac OS X.

Remote attackers can exploit the flaw by delivering crafted .swf content, including Microsoft Office documents containing embedded Flash objects, to trigger arbitrary code execution or an application crash. Successful exploitation grants the attacker the ability to run code in the context of the affected process without requiring authentication beyond normal user interaction such as opening a malicious document or viewing a web page.

Publicly available analyses and vendor bulletins from April 2011 document in-the-wild exploitation and recommend immediate application of the vendor-supplied updates that raise Flash Player, AIR, Reader, and Acrobat to the fixed versions listed in the CVE description. Several distributions and browser vendors also issued coordinated advisories to accelerate patching or temporarily restrict Flash execution.

The vulnerability was actively exploited in April 2011, with multiple public write-ups detailing weaponized samples that combined the type confusion primitive with ROP chains to achieve reliable code execution.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Adobe Flash Player before 10.2.154.27 on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris and 10.2.156.12 and earlier on Android; Adobe AIR before 2.6.19140; and Authplay.dll (aka AuthPlayLib.bundle) in Adobe Reader 9.x before 9.4.4 and 10.x through 10.0.1 on Windows, Adobe…

more

Reader 9.x before 9.4.4 and 10.x before 10.0.3 on Mac OS X, and Adobe Acrobat 9.x before 9.4.4 and 10.x before 10.0.3 on Windows and Mac OS X allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (application crash) via crafted Flash content; as demonstrated by a Microsoft Office document with an embedded .swf file that has a size inconsistency in a "group of included constants," object type confusion, ActionScript that adds custom functions to prototypes, and Date objects; and as exploited in the wild in April 2011.

CWE(s)
KEV Date Added
03 March 2022

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2017-11292Same product: Adobe Flash Playerboth on KEV
CVE-2025-6554Same product: Google Chromeboth on KEV
CVE-2017-5070Same product: Google Androidboth on KEV
CVE-2014-0497Same product: Adobe Flash Playerboth on KEV
CVE-2023-3079Same product: Google Chromeboth on KEV
CVE-2011-0609Same product: Adobe Acrobatboth on KEV
CVE-2013-0641Same product: Adobe Acrobatboth on KEV
CVE-2012-0754Same product: Adobe Flash Playerboth on KEV
CVE-2014-0502Same product: Adobe Adobe Airboth on KEV
CVE-2015-0313Same product: Adobe Flash Playerboth on KEV

Affected Assets

adobe
flash player
≤ 10.2.154.27 · ≤ 10.2.156.12
adobe
acrobat reader
9.0 — 9.4.4 · 10.0 — 10.0.1 · 9.0 — 9.4.4
adobe
adobe air
≤ 2.6.19140
adobe
acrobat
9.0 — 9.4 · 10.0 — 10.0.3
google
chrome
≤ 10.0.648.205
opensuse
opensuse
11.2, 11.3, 11.4
suse
linux enterprise desktop
10, 11

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.5.2
  • V3.2.3
  • V15.3.5

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent type-confusion flaws via safe typing, static analysis, and code review while the control itself addresses many additional weaknesses.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing in development can detect type-confusion vulnerabilities through fuzzing and static analysis.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates type-safe design and review that can catch type-confusion flaws.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify strong typing and interface contracts that reduce type confusion.

prevents

Secure architecture principles promote type-safe languages and memory-safety mechanisms that mitigate type confusion.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly forbid unsafe type casts and require static-analysis checks for type confusion.

References