Security Resilience

CVE-2023-21611

Adobe Acrobat Dc 15.008.20082 – 22.003.20282

Published
18 January 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0040 32th percentile
Risk Priority 57 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-2023-21611 is a high-severity Creation of Temporary File in Directory with Insecure Permissions (CWE-379) vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat Dc. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Steganography (T1001.002); ranked at the 32th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A01:2025 Broken Access Control

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Adobe Acrobat Reader versions 22.003.20282 (and earlier), 22.003.20281 (and earlier) and 20.005.30418 (and earlier) are affected by a Creation of Temporary File in Directory with Incorrect Permissions vulnerability that could result in privilege escalation in the context of the current…

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user. Exploitation of this issue requires user interaction in that a victim must open a malicious file.

CWE(s)
CWE-379CWE-668

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001.002 Steganography Command And Control
Adversaries may use steganographic techniques to hide command and control traffic to make detection efforts more difficult.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003 OS Credential Dumping Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to dump credentials to obtain account login and credential material, normally in the form of a hash or a clear text password.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.002 Security Account Manager Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to extract credential material from the Security Account Manager (SAM) database either through in-memory techniques or through the Windows Registry where the SAM database is stored.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.003 NTDS Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access or create a copy of the Active Directory domain database in order to steal credential information, as well as obtain other information about domain members such as devices, users, and access rights.
attack.mitre.org →
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.
attack.mitre.org →
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.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-26396Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2023-21612Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2024-49535Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2025-43550Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2025-43574Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2024-30280Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2024-30302Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2024-20734Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2023-29303Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2023-38239Same product: Adobe Acrobat

Affected Assets

adobe
acrobat dc
15.008.20082 — 22.003.20282 · 15.008.20082 — 22.003.20281
adobe
acrobat reader dc
15.008.20082 — 22.003.20282 · 15.008.20082 — 22.003.20281
adobe
acrobat
20.001.30005 — 20.005.30418
adobe
acrobat reader
20.001.30005 — 20.005.30418

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 1 hardening rule · 1 OS baseline
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V15.4.2

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.

AC-20 Use of External Systems
addresses: CWE-668

Controls whether organization resources are exposed to external system spheres by permitting or prohibiting their use.

AC-21 Information Sharing
addresses: CWE-668

The control ensures information is not released into a security sphere where the recipient lacks matching access authorizations.

AC-22 Publicly Accessible Content
addresses: CWE-668

The control ensures information resources are not exposed to the incorrect (public) sphere through review and authorization.

AC-23 Data Mining Protection
addresses: CWE-668

Protects against data mining that would expose resources to unauthorized spheres by enforcing detection and controls.

AC-4 Information Flow Enforcement
addresses: CWE-668

Restricts information flows to ensure resources are not exposed to incorrect or unauthorized spheres.

CA-9 Internal System Connections
addresses: CWE-668

Controlling internal connections prevents exposure of resources to unintended internal spheres.

CM-12 Information Location
addresses: CWE-668

Knowing exact processing and storage locations helps avoid exposure of resources to incorrect spheres.

MP-2 Media Access
addresses: CWE-668

The control prevents exposure of the media resource to the wrong security sphere.

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 prevent developers from writing code that creates temp files in insecure directories.

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.

A.7.6 Working in secure areas partial match
removes
A.8.19 Installation of software on operational systems partial match
removes
A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
removes

A.8.26 only requires that security requirements (including for file permissions) be identified and specified during development or acquisition; it does not itself mandate, design, or implement the secure creation of temporary files that would remove the CWE-379 flaw from the resulting product.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
blocks

A.8.27 mandates security-by-design, hardening, least privilege, default-deny and distrust-external-input principles plus design reviews that can catch and block insecure temp-file permissions during architecture and implementation; this stops exploitation for many but not all instances (e.g. third-party libraries, runtime OS defaults, or post-deployment changes outside the engineering process).

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly require safe temporary-file creation with restrictive permissions.

A.8.9 Configuration management partial match
removes

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (higher-evidence rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
  • V-248577 OL 8 must enable kernel parameters to enforce Discretionary Access Control (DAC) on symlinks. blocks CWE-379

References