Adobe Acrobat and Reader Use-After-Free Vulnerability
Adobe · Acrobat and Reader
End of lifeAdobe Reader/Acrobat 9 reached End of lifeThe vendor no longer ships security fixes. Remove or isolate the product instead of waiting for a patch. on 26 Jun 2013. No patch is coming: remove or isolate it.
Adobe Acrobat and Reader contain a use-after-free flaw in the Doc.media.newPlayer method within the Multimedia.api component, affecting Reader and Acrobat 9.x before 9.3 and 8.x before 8.2 on Windows and Mac OS X. An attacker can execute arbitrary code by supplying a crafted PDF file that uses ZLib compressed streams, and the attack requires a user to open that file.
Use-after-free vulnerability in the Doc.media.newPlayer method in Multimedia.api in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x before 9.3, and 8.x before 8.2 on Windows and Mac OS X, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted PDF file using ZLib compressed streams, as exploited in the wild in December 2009.
- Exploited
- Yes, in CISA KEV
- Reports
- 0
- Tactics
- 2/15
How an attack unfolds
Based on MITRE ATT&CKA public catalogue of the techniques attackers use, maintained by MITRE. Patchfirst uses it to describe what attackers do with a vulnerability. mappings. Select a step to see the evidence.How attackers get in
What they do
Exploitation timelineDated milestones for a CVE: when it was disclosed, when exploit code became public, when exploitation was confirmed, and when threat reports named it.
First seen exploited the day it was disclosed. Public exploit code (Metasploit) was available 1 day before disclosure.
- Public exploit codeMetasploit1 day before
- Added to CISA KEVEU database agrees+12 yrs
CISA KEV listing is when exploitation was confirmed, not necessarily the first attack.
MITRE ATT&CKA public catalogue of the techniques attackers use, maintained by MITRE. Patchfirst uses it to describe what attackers do with a vulnerability. techniques
2 TechniqueOne specific attacker behaviour in MITRE ATT&CK, such as T1190 “Exploit Public-Facing Application”. IDs with a dot, like T1059.004, are sub-techniques., grouped by TacticThe attacker’s goal at a stage of an attack in MITRE ATT&CK, such as Initial Access or Persistence. Each technique belongs to one or more tactics. in kill-chain order 2ExecutionTA0002
This vulnerability is exploited by having the user open a maliciously-crafted pdf file. In the wild, this has been observed to result in a malicious actor installing a custom executable on the victim's machine, and establishing communications.
Command and ControlTA0011
Lower-confidence links (1)
These come from early or generic mappings, text matching, or contradict this CVE’s details (for example a public-facing technique on a bug that needs a user to open a file). Shown for completeness.
- Exploitation for Client ExecutionT1203 CTID attack_to_cve Phase 1 "Uncategorized" mapping (not staged by impact)
Detection
0 rules for this CVE · 81 general rules for its techniquesRules for this CVE
0Sigma ruleAn open, vendor-neutral detection rule for log data. Security teams convert Sigma rules into searches for their own SIEM. that reference CVE-2009-4324 directly.CVE-specific rules are not available in this build. Search SigmaHQ ↗
General rules for this CVE’s techniques
These detect the technique in general, not this specific vulnerability.
Malicious FileT1204.00239 general rules
- Droppers Exploiting CVE-2017-11882criticalstable
- Ursnif Malware C2 URL Patterncriticalstable
- Exploit for CVE-2017-8759criticaltest
- Potential Maze Ransomware Activitycriticaltest
- File With Uncommon Extension Created By An Office Applicationhightest
- Flash Player Update from Suspicious Locationhightest
- GAC DLL Loaded Via Office Applicationshightest
- HackTool - LittleCorporal Generated Maldoc Injectionhightest
Web ProtocolsT1071.00142 general rules
- Ursnif Malware C2 URL Patterncriticalstable
- HackTool - BabyShark Agent Default URL Patterncriticaltest
- PwnDrp Accesscriticaltest
- Ursnif Malware Download URL Patternhighstable
- APT User Agenthightest
- APT40 Dropbox Tool User Agenthightest
- Bitsadmin to Uncommon IP Server Addresshightest
- Bitsadmin to Uncommon TLDhightest
Sigma rules © SigmaHQ, Detection Rule License 1.1; linked, not reproduced.
What security researchers reported
Not named in any threat report yetAlso mentioned in 50 community threat pulses (AlienVault OTX)
Weaker evidencePulses are indicator collections that anyone can publish. A mention is not confirmation of exploitation.
- Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 29, 202628 Oct 2026
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- Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 27, 202626 Oct 2026
- Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 24, 202623 Oct 2026
- Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 23, 202622 Oct 2026
- Actively_Exploited_Kev | Oct 22, 202621 Oct 2026
- 44 more on OTX