Security Resilience

CVE-2023-29299

LPE in Adobe Acrobat 20.001.30005 – 20.005.30516.10516

LPE
Published
10 August 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 4.7
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0041 34th percentile
Risk Priority 38 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-2023-29299 is a medium-severity Untrusted Search Path (CWE-426) vulnerability in Apple Macos. Its CVSS base score is 4.7 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Path Interception by Unquoted Path (T1574.009); ranked at the 34th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A08:2025 Software or Data Integrity Failures

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Adobe Acrobat Reader versions 23.003.20244 (and earlier) and 20.005.30467 (and earlier) are affected by an Untrusted Search Path vulnerability that could lead to Application denial-of-service. An attacker could leverage this vulnerability if the default PowerShell Set-ExecutionPolicy is set to Unrestricted,…

more

making the attack complexity high. Exploitation of this issue requires user interaction in that a victim must open a malicious file.

CWE(s)
CWE-426

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1574.009 Path Interception by Unquoted Path Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking vulnerable file path references.
attack.mitre.org →
T1001.001 Junk Data Command And Control
Adversaries may add junk data to protocols used for command and control to make detection more difficult.
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 →
T1003.006 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…
attack.mitre.org →
T1005 Data from Local System Collection
Adversaries may search local system sources, such as file systems, configuration files, local databases, virtual machine files, or process memory, to find files of interest and sensitive data prior to Exfiltration.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-64785Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2026-21280Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2026-48346Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-34123Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-27167Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-39420Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2024-39425Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2025-43550Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2025-43574Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2024-30280Same product: Adobe Acrobat

Affected Assets

adobe
acrobat dc
15.008.20082 — 23.003.20269
adobe
acrobat reader dc
15.008.20082 — 23.003.20269
adobe
acrobat
20.001.30005 — 20.005.30516.10516 · 20.001.30005 — 20.005.30514.10514
adobe
acrobat reader
20.001.30005 — 20.005.30516.10516 · 20.001.30005 — 20.005.30514.10514

Mitigating Controls

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-01 partial match
blocks

Hardened configuration baselines can enforce safe search paths and restrict environment variables that enable the weakness.

PR.PS-05 partial match
blocks

Preventing execution of unauthorized code directly blocks the malicious binaries that an untrusted search path would load.

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Secure development practices include avoiding or sanitizing externally influenced search paths in application code.

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.5.14 Information transfer partial match
removes
A.5.15 Access control partial match
removes
A.5.16 Identity management partial match
removes
A.5.17 Authentication information partial match
removes
A.5.18 Access rights partial match
removes
A.8.10 Information deletion partial match
removes

References