Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-81990 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-81990 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-81990?
- High severity, with a CVSS score of 7.8, published 8 September 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- Adobe Acrobat Reader.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-81990?
- No fixed version is recorded yet. Check the vendor's advisory in the references below. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.
- How is CVE-2026-81990 attacked?
- It is attacked with local access.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-81990?
- Check whether you run Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Adobe Acrobat Dc or one of the others listed. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
Technical details
The vulnerability is a use-after-free memory safety bug in Acrobat Reader's PDF parsing engine. When processing a malicious PDF file, the application attempts to use a memory object that has already been freed, allowing an attacker to overwrite adjacent memory and achieve arbitrary code execution. Exploitation requires user interaction—the victim must open the malicious PDF—but no prior authentication or special system configuration is needed. A successful exploit grants code execution in the context of the logged-in user, with potential for data theft, lateral movement, or ransomware deployment. Patch status and affected version details are not currently available from the provided advisory references.
Affected products
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
Timeline
- 2026-09-08: disclosed