Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
A malicious file can crash Adobe After Effects when opened. This is mainly an availability issue for users running After Effects 18.4.1 or earlier, not a data theft or system takeover issue based on the provided sources.
Executive priority
Treat this as a moderate workstation resilience issue. Prioritize creative teams and shared production machines, but it is not shown as actively exploited or confidentiality-impacting in the provided evidence.
Technical view
CVE-2021-40756 is a CWE-476 null pointer dereference in Adobe After Effects file parsing. The CVSS 3.1 vector is AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H, requiring user interaction and affecting availability only.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to endpoints with Adobe After Effects 18.4.1 or earlier where users may open externally supplied or untrusted files.
Exploitation context
The provided sources do not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation. Exploitation requires a victim to open a malicious file locally.
Researcher notes
The bundle identifies the bug class, CVSS vector, affected threshold, and user-interaction requirement. It does not provide detailed patch-version mapping beyond the Adobe advisory reference, so remediation should follow Adobe APSB21-79 directly.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory Adobe After Effects installations and identify versions 18.4.1 or earlier.
- Apply Adobe guidance in APSB21-79; update to the vendor-recommended fixed release.
- Limit opening After Effects files from untrusted external sources.
- Use endpoint controls to quarantine suspicious creative project files where feasible.
Validation and detection
- Verify installed After Effects versions on creative endpoints.
- Confirm APSB21-79 remediation has been applied according to Adobe documentation.
- Review endpoint crash telemetry for repeated After Effects failures after opening external files.
- Check software management records for remaining 18.4.1 or earlier installations.
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-476: 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-2021-40756 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
- 5.5 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H1.83.6Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
5.5MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/after_effects/apsb21-79.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.
NULL Pointer Dereference
NULL Pointer Dereference represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.