CVE-2022-28233
Published: 11 May 2022
Summary
CVE-2022-28233 is a high-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Apple Macos. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 6.2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis
Acrobat Reader DC versions 22.001.20085 and earlier, 20.005.3031x and earlier, and 17.012.30205 and earlier contain a use-after-free vulnerability (CWE-416) in the processing of annotations. The flaw can result in arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user and carries a CVSS 3.0 base score of 7.8 reflecting local attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, and required user interaction.
An attacker can exploit the issue by supplying a malicious PDF file that triggers the use-after-free condition when opened in an affected Reader instance. Successful exploitation grants the attacker the ability to execute arbitrary code under the privileges of the victim user who opens the document.
The Adobe security advisory APSB22-16 at https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/acrobat/apsb22-16.html addresses the vulnerability and supplies patch information for the impacted Acrobat Reader DC releases. The associated EPSS score has remained flat at 0.1154 with no material increase observed after disclosure.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2022-32685
Vulnerability details
Acrobat Reader DC versions 22.001.20085 (and earlier), 20.005.3031x (and earlier) and 17.012.30205 (and earlier) are affected by a use-after-free vulnerability in the processing of annotations that could result in arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user. Exploitation…
more
of this issue requires user interaction in that a victim must open a malicious file.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Use-after-free exploits that achieve arbitrary code execution are blocked or significantly hardened by non-executable pages and ASLR.