Security Resilience

CVE-2013-2729

Memory Safety in Adobe Acrobat 9.0 – 9.5.5

CISA KEVActive ExploitationEUVD ExploitedMemory Safety
Published
16 May 2013
Modified
22 April 2026
KEV Added
28 March 2022
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.67 99.3th percentile
Risk Priority 97 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2013-2729 is a critical-severity Integer Overflow or Wraparound (CWE-190) vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique LSA Secrets (T1003.004); ranked in the top 0.7% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

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

An integer overflow vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2013-2729 and assigned CWE-190, affects Adobe Reader and Acrobat versions 9.x prior to 9.5.5, 10.x prior to 10.1.7, and 11.x prior to 11.0.03. The flaw permits arbitrary code execution through unspecified vectors and is distinct from the related issue CVE-2013-2727. It carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8, reflecting network attack vectors that require no authentication or user interaction.

Remote attackers can exploit the condition to execute arbitrary code on affected systems, resulting in full compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The high severity stems from the ability to trigger the overflow without local access or elevated privileges, enabling direct impact on any exposed installation that processes malicious input.

Adobe security bulletin APSB13-15 and corresponding vendor advisories, including Red Hat RHSA-2013-0826, openSUSE and Gentoo updates, and OVAL definitions, address mitigation through application of the listed patches that update the affected Reader and Acrobat releases to the fixed versions. Organizations are advised to apply these updates promptly to eliminate the vulnerable code paths.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Integer overflow in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x before 9.5.5, 10.x before 10.1.7, and 11.x before 11.0.03 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2013-2727.

CWE(s)
KEV Date Added
28 March 2022

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1003.004 LSA Secrets Credential Access
Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.
T1003.005 Cached Domain Credentials Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access cached domain credentials used to allow authentication to occur in the event a domain controller is unavailable.
T1003.006 DCSync Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credentials and other sensitive information by abusing a Windows Domain Controller's application programming interface (API)(Citation: Microsoft DRSR Dec 2017) (Citation: Microsoft GetNCCChanges) (Citati…
T1003.008 /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to dump the contents of <code>/etc/passwd</code> and <code>/etc/shadow</code> to enable offline password cracking.
T1006 Direct Volume Access Stealth
Adversaries may directly access a volume to bypass file access controls and file system monitoring.
T1008 Fallback Channels Command And Control
Adversaries may use fallback or alternate communication channels if the primary channel is compromised or inaccessible in order to maintain reliable command and control and to avoid data transfer thresholds.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2015-8651Same product: Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktopboth on KEV
CVE-2018-6065Same product: Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktopboth on KEV
CVE-2013-0641Same product: Adobe Acrobatboth on KEV
CVE-2013-0640Same product: Adobe Acrobatboth on KEV
CVE-2012-5054Same vendor: Adobeboth on KEV
CVE-2018-14634Same product: Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktopboth on KEV
CVE-2015-5119Same product: Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktopboth on KEV
CVE-2016-1010Same vendor: Adobeboth on KEV
CVE-2014-0497Same product: Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktopboth on KEV
CVE-2017-8291Same product: Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktopboth on KEV

Affected Assets

adobe
acrobat
9.0 — 9.5.5 · 10.0 — 10.1.7 · 11.0 — 11.0.03
adobe
acrobat reader
9.0 — 9.5.5 · 10.0 — 10.1.7 · 11.0 — 11.0.03
suse
linux enterprise desktop
10, 11
redhat
enterprise linux desktop
6.0
redhat
enterprise linux eus
5.9, 6.4
redhat
enterprise linux server
6.0
redhat
enterprise linux server aus
5.9, 6.4
redhat
enterprise linux workstation
6.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

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Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

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Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

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Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V5.2.6

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 partial match
blocks

Secure SDLC practices directly require use of safe arithmetic, bounds checks, and testing that prevent integer overflows.

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.

removes
removes
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References