Threats / Adobe / CVE-2014-0496
CVE-2014-0496
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-06-22
Adobe Reader and Acrobat vulnerability
Adobe Reader and Acrobat contain a use-after-free vulnerability enabling arbitrary code execution. The flaw has been exploited in the wild.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
A use-after-free defect in Adobe Reader and Acrobat permits remote code execution when processing malicious documents. Active exploitation in the wild and high EPSS score indicate immediate risk to deployed systems.
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
1 independent public report of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-03).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.40243 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
Affected: Adobe, Reader and Acrobat. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-399 Resource Management Errors — weakness family: Resource / availability.CWE assignment from the public NVD record; the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
Craft a malicious PDF document that triggers the use-after-free condition during parsing.
Business
End users opening untrusted PDF attachments or visiting compromised websites face arbitrary code execution on their systems.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
Distribute the malicious PDF through email, web downloads, or document sharing platforms to maximize reach.
Business
Organizations experience data theft, system compromise, and potential lateral movement within networks via infected endpoints.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
Execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the Reader or Acrobat process to establish persistence or exfiltrate data.
Business
Attackers gain foothold for ransomware deployment, espionage, or further infrastructure compromise without user awareness.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05