Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This vulnerability affects Adobe After Effects 18.2 and earlier when a user opens a malicious file. It can expose sensitive memory information and crash the application. Business risk is mainly to creative workstations handling untrusted files, not internet-facing servers.
Executive priority
Treat as a targeted workstation risk. Prioritize remediation where creative users handle external files, because the issue can disclose memory data and cause denial of service after user interaction.
Technical view
CVE-2021-28614 is a CWE-125 out-of-bounds read in Adobe After Effects file parsing. CVSS 3.1 is 6.1 with local attack vector, no privileges required, user interaction required, high confidentiality impact, no integrity impact, and low availability impact.
Likely exposure
Organizations using Adobe After Effects 18.2 or earlier are potentially exposed, especially teams that receive project files or media assets from external parties.
Exploitation context
The source bundle states exploitation requires a victim to open a specially crafted file. CISA KEV status is false, and the provided sources do not show active exploitation.
Researcher notes
The evidence supports memory disclosure and denial of service through malformed file parsing. Do not assume remote code execution, broad product impact, or active exploitation from the provided sources.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory Adobe After Effects installations and identify versions 18.2 or earlier.
- Review Adobe APSB21-49 and apply the vendor-provided security update guidance.
- Limit opening After Effects files from unknown or untrusted sources.
- Use endpoint controls to quarantine suspicious creative project files.
Validation and detection
- Confirm installed After Effects versions across creative workstations.
- Verify remediation against Adobe APSB21-49 guidance.
- Review recent crashes involving After Effects file parsing where telemetry is available.
- Check user workflows for externally supplied After Effects files.
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-125: 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 lookupCVE-2021-28614 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
- Medium
- CVSS
- 6.1 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:L
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:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:L1.84.2Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
6.1MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:L
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/after_effects/apsb21-49.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 Read
Out-of-bounds Read represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.