Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
Adobe Audition can expose small amounts of sensitive memory when a user opens a malicious MOV file. This is not a remote, no-click issue. Business urgency is mainly for creative workstations that receive media files from outside the organization.
Executive priority
Treat as a targeted workstation hygiene issue, not an enterprise-wide emergency. Patch or retire affected Audition installs where users process external media, and reinforce controls around untrusted MOV files.
Technical view
CVE-2021-44697 is a CWE-125 out-of-bounds read in Adobe Audition MOV parsing affecting versions 14.4 and earlier, and 22.0 and earlier. The disclosed impact is information disclosure that may help bypass mitigations such as ASLR. CVSS 3.1 score is 3.3.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely limited to endpoints with Adobe Audition installed, especially media-production users who open MOV files from clients, vendors, or public sources. The bundle provides no CPEs and lists affected versions only broadly.
Exploitation context
Provided sources do not indicate active exploitation, and the CVE is not listed as KEV. Exploitation requires local user interaction: the victim must open a malicious MOV file in an affected Adobe Audition version.
Researcher notes
The key weakness is an out-of-bounds read during MOV parsing. The sources support confidentiality impact only; they do not support integrity, availability, remote code execution, or active exploitation claims. Affected version metadata is incomplete beyond the version ranges provided.
Mitigation direction
- Review Adobe APSB21-121 and update Audition per vendor guidance.
- Prioritize creative workstations handling external MOV files.
- Warn users not to open unexpected MOV files from untrusted sources.
- Use mail, web, and endpoint controls to quarantine suspicious media files.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Adobe Audition installations and versions across managed endpoints.
- Check for Audition 14.4 or earlier, and 22.0 or earlier.
- Confirm remediation status against Adobe APSB21-121.
- Review EDR or email telemetry for suspicious MOV file handling.
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-2021-44697 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
- Low
- CVSS
- 3.3 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
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:L/I:N/A:N1.81.4Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
3.3LowVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/audition/apsb21-121.htmlCVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-21-1578/CVE 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.