Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This flaw can make Adobe After Effects crash when a user opens a specially crafted file. The known impact is application denial of service, not data theft or system takeover. Business urgency is moderate and concentrated where creative staff handle files from external or untrusted sources.
Executive priority
Prioritize remediation for creative and marketing workstations that exchange files externally. This is not described as a breach-enabling issue, but it can disrupt production workflows and may be triggered by a single malicious file.
Technical view
CVE-2021-40761 is a CWE-476 NULL pointer dereference in Adobe After Effects 18.4.1 and earlier during crafted file parsing. CVSS 3.1 is 5.5, with local attack vector, required user interaction, no privileges, unchanged scope, no confidentiality or integrity impact, and high availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely limited to endpoints running Adobe After Effects 18.4.1 or earlier, especially users who open project or media files from clients, partners, downloads, or shared repositories.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or evidence of active exploitation. Exploitation requires user interaction: a victim must open a malicious file. The documented outcome is an application crash in the current user's context.
Researcher notes
Evidence is limited to CVE metadata and Adobe's referenced advisory. Do not assume broader code execution or active exploitation from these sources. Validation should focus on version exposure, file-handling paths, and whether Adobe advisory remediation has been applied.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory Adobe After Effects installations and identify versions 18.4.1 or earlier.
- Review Adobe APSB21-79 and apply vendor-recommended updates or mitigations.
- Limit opening After Effects files from untrusted or unexpected sources.
- Use normal endpoint controls for suspicious attachments and downloaded project files.
Validation and detection
- Confirm installed After Effects versions across managed endpoints.
- Verify remediation status against Adobe APSB21-79 guidance.
- Review crash reports for repeated After Effects crashes after opening external files.
- Check creative-team workflows for untrusted file intake paths.
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-2021-40761 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.