Executive brief
Acrobat Reader, the widely-used tool for viewing PDF documents, contains an out-of-bounds read vulnerability that can expose sensitive information from the application's memory. An attacker can exploit this by crafting a malicious PDF file that, when opened by a user, leaks confidential data such as passwords, encryption keys, or other sensitive information stored in memory.
Technical details
The vulnerability is an out-of-bounds read in Acrobat Reader's PDF parsing engine. The root cause is improper bounds checking when reading data structures within a PDF file. Exploitation requires user interaction: a victim must open a specially crafted malicious PDF document. A successful exploit allows an attacker to read arbitrary memory regions, potentially disclosing sensitive information such as cryptographic keys, passwords, or other confidential data. The attack is limited to information disclosure and does not enable code execution or system compromise.
Affected products
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
Timeline
- 2026-09-08: disclosed