Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2026-21288 is a medium-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Adobe Illustrator. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 8th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) and SI-3 (Malicious Code Protection) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-2068
Vulnerability Data
Illustrator versions 29.8.3, 30.0 and earlier are affected by a NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability that could lead to application denial-of-service. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to crash the application, causing disruption to services. Exploitation of this issue requires user…
more
interaction in that a victim must open a malicious file.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
NULL dereference directly enables application crash via malicious file, matching Application or System Exploitation for DoS.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly requires applying vendor patches that remediate the NULL pointer dereference in Illustrator before a malicious file can trigger the crash.
Malicious-code / file-scanning mechanisms can block or flag the specially crafted Illustrator file needed to exploit the vulnerability.
Integrity verification of documents and executables can detect or reject the tampered file that triggers the CWE-476 condition.
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.
Secure SDLC practices (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.
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.
Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.
Secure SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.
Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.
Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.
Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.