Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2021-28586 is a high-severity Adobe After Effects flaw. A crafted file could make vulnerable After Effects installations run attacker-controlled code as the logged-in user. The main business risk is compromise of creative workstations after a user opens a malicious file.
Executive priority
Treat this as a high-priority workstation risk for creative teams. It requires user interaction, but successful exploitation could give an attacker full user-level access to affected machines and business files.
Technical view
Adobe After Effects 18.0 and earlier are described as affected by a CWE-787 out-of-bounds write in PDF file parsing. The CVSS 3.0 score is 8.8, with network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, user interaction required, and high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely on workstations running Adobe After Effects 18.0 or earlier, especially in teams that receive project or media files from external parties. The source bundle does not identify server-side exposure.
Exploitation context
The CVE description says exploitation requires user interaction: a victim must open a malicious file. The provided KEV flag is false, and the bundle includes no cited evidence of active exploitation.
Researcher notes
Evidence is limited to the CVE data and Adobe advisory reference. The affected version boundary is stated as After Effects 18.0 and earlier. No exploit-in-the-wild evidence or detailed fixed version data is included in the supplied bundle.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory Adobe After Effects installations and identify versions 18.0 or earlier.
- Review Adobe APSB21-33 for vendor update and mitigation guidance.
- Prioritize patching or removing vulnerable After Effects installations.
- Limit opening untrusted files on vulnerable creative workstations.
- Use endpoint controls to reduce impact from user-context code execution.
Validation and detection
- Confirm installed After Effects versions on managed endpoints.
- Check whether Adobe APSB21-33 updates are applied.
- Identify users who regularly receive external After Effects or PDF-related files.
- Review endpoint alerts for suspicious activity following file opens.
- Verify vulnerable systems are patched, isolated, or decommissioned.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-787: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupExecution behavior lookup
The CVE wording references code or command execution, so execution technique review may help defensive triage. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2021-28586 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 8.8 (3.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H2.85.9Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.0 score
8.8HighVector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/after_effects/apsb21-33.htmlCVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Out-of-bounds Write
Out-of-bounds Write represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.