Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-39420

Race Condition in Adobe Acrobat 20.001.30005 – 20.005.30655

Race Condition
Published
14 August 2024
Modified
21 November 2024
CVSS Score v3.1 7.0
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.035 88th percentile
Risk Priority 57 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2024-39420 is a high-severity Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition (CWE-367) vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat. Its CVSS base score is 7.0 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Path Interception (T1034); ranked in the top 12% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-25 (Reference Monitor) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Acrobat Reader versions 20.005.30636, 24.002.21005, 24.001.30159, 20.005.30655, 24.002.20965, 24.002.20964, 24.001.30123, 24.003.20054 and earlier are affected by a Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition vulnerability that could lead to arbitrary code execution. This vulnerability arises when the timing of actions changes the…

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state of a resource between the checking of a condition and the use of the resource, allowing an attacker to manipulate the resource in a harmful way. Exploitation of this issue requires user interaction in that a victim must open a malicious file.

CWE(s)
CWE-367

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1034 Path Interception Persistence
**This technique has been deprecated.
attack.mitre.org →
T1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may circumvent mechanisms designed to control privilege elevation to gain higher-level permissions.
attack.mitre.org →
T1574 Hijack Execution Flow Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking the way operating systems run programs.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-39425Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2023-29299Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2023-26406Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2023-26408Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2024-34099Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2023-38231Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2023-44338Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2023-38244Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2024-41834Same product: Adobe Acrobat
CVE-2023-22242Same product: Adobe Acrobat

Affected Assets

adobe
acrobat
20.001.30005 — 20.005.30655 · 24.001.20604 — 24.001.30159
adobe
acrobat dc
15.008.20082 — 24.002.21005
adobe
acrobat reader
20.001.3005 — 20.005.30655
adobe
acrobat reader dc
15.008.20082 — 24.002.21005

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)
  • V15.4.2
  • V17.2.6

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

AC-25 Reference Monitor good match

A reference monitor that is always invoked and analyzable structurally eliminates the non-atomic check-then-use pattern underlying TOCTOU.

AC-3 Access Enforcement partial match

Access enforcement that performs an atomic check-and-use decision directly stops the window in which a TOCTOU race can be exploited.

SC-39 Process Isolation partial match

Process isolation limits the blast radius of a successful TOCTOU exploitation but does not remove the race itself.

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 include coding standards and reviews that prevent TOCTOU race conditions.

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.8.17 Clock synchronization none match
none

Reliable, synchronized time across systems narrows the exploitable window in which a resource state can change between a security check and its use.

References