CVE-2009-4324: Adobe Acrobat and Reader Use-After-Free Vulnerability

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2009-4324 is a high (CVSS 9.3) Use After Free vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat and Reader. It is known to be exploited: CISA lists it, first on 08-06-2022. EPSS estimates a 81.88% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.6% of scored vulnerabilities. 6 public exploits are recorded.

Timeline

1. 15-12-2009
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 08-06-2022
   Added to CISA KEVAdobe Acrobat and Reader Use-After-Free Vulnerability
3. 22-06-2022
   CISA remediation dueApply updates per vendor instructions.
4. 22-10-2025
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Use-after-free vulnerability in the Doc.media.newPlayer method in Multimedia.api in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x before 9.3, and 8.x before 8.2 on Windows and Mac OS X, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted PDF file using ZLib compressed streams, as exploited in the wild in December 2009.

• CWE-416Use After FreeThe product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.