Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
A malicious file can crash affected Adobe After Effects installations when a user opens it. The issue can interrupt creative work and cause lost productivity, but the supplied evidence does not indicate data theft, file modification, or system compromise.
Executive priority
Treat this as a moderate operational risk. Remediate through the normal vulnerability cycle, accelerating workstations that process external files or support time-sensitive production. Current evidence does not justify an emergency response based on exploitation or compromise.
Technical view
CVE-2026-21350 is a NULL pointer dereference in After Effects 25.6 and earlier. It requires local file access and user interaction, needs no privileges, and affects availability through an application crash. CVSS 3.1 rates it 5.5 with no stated confidentiality or integrity impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is concentrated on workstations running After Effects 25.6 or earlier whose users may open untrusted files. The supplied structured version data is ambiguous, so organizations should confirm affected and corrected releases against Adobe’s advisory.
Exploitation context
Exploitation requires a victim to open a malicious file. The bundle does not list this CVE in KEV and provides no evidence of active exploitation. The demonstrated consequence is application denial-of-service rather than code execution.
Researcher notes
The stated weakness is CWE-476 and the CVSS vector indicates local access, low complexity, no privileges, required user interaction, unchanged scope, and high availability impact. The narrative says 25.6 and earlier, while structured entries include 25.6.4 and 26.0 with default unaffected; vendor confirmation is necessary.
Mitigation direction
- Check Adobe’s advisory for the corrected release and deploy the vendor-recommended update.
- Until updated, instruct users not to open unsolicited or untrusted files in After Effects.
- Prioritize systems where externally sourced creative files are routinely processed.
Validation and detection
- Inventory installed After Effects versions and identify installations at version 25.6 or earlier.
- Reconcile detected versions with Adobe’s advisory because the supplied structured version entries are ambiguous.
- Confirm updated endpoints report the vendor-designated corrected version.
- Review endpoint telemetry for repeated After Effects crashes associated with recently opened 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-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-2026-21350 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.
SSVC decision data
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:H1.83.6adobeVulnerability 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
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/after_effects/apsb26-15.htmlCVE reference, adobe · vendor-advisory
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.