Threats / Adobe / CVE-2013-0641
CVE-2013-0641
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
Adobe Reader vulnerability
A buffer overflow vulnerability in Adobe Reader enables remote code execution when processing malicious documents, allowing attackers to execute arbitrary code with user privileges.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
This vulnerability poses significant risk due to active exploitation in the wild. The buffer overflow in a widely-deployed PDF reader permits unauthenticated remote code execution, requiring only that a user open a crafted document.
CISA KEV Yes · 2022-03-034EPSS 0.32449 (verify live)5CVSS 7.8 (CISA)3CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: total3
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
7 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-03).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.32449 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 7.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: Adobe, Reader. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-120 Buffer Copy without Size Check — weakness family: Memory safety.CWE assignment from the public NVD record (may be stale); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 3304 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I craft a malicious PDF document containing specially-formatted data that overflows a buffer in Adobe Reader's parsing logic.
Business
End users face direct compromise of their systems and data when opening email attachments or downloading files from untrusted sources.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I distribute the malicious PDF through email, web downloads, or document sharing platforms to reach target victims.
Business
Organizations experience potential data breaches, intellectual property theft, and operational disruption from compromised employee systems.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
Upon successful exploitation, I gain code execution in the context of the user running Adobe Reader, allowing me to install malware or establish persistence.
Business
Enterprises must respond to security incidents, conduct forensics, notify affected parties, and remediate compromised endpoints at significant cost.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05