CVE-2025-43577: Use After Free Vulnerability in Acrobat Reader Leading to Arbitrary Code Execution

Overview

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system has recently identified a critical vulnerability tagged as CVE-2025-43577. This vulnerability is found in multiple versions of Acrobat Reader, a widely used software for viewing, creating, manipulating, and managing files in Portable Document Format (PDF). The identified vulnerability is a Use After Free vulnerability that could result in arbitrary code execution, potentially allowing an attacker to take control of the affected system. Given the prevalence of Acrobat Reader across diverse sectors, from personal computing to large corporations, this vulnerability warrants immediate attention and mitigation.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-43577
Severity: High (7.8 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Local
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

Acrobat Reader | 24.001.30235
Acrobat Reader | 20.005.30763
Acrobat Reader | 25.001.20521 and earlier versions

How the Exploit Works

The identified vulnerability resides in the memory management of Acrobat Reader. A Use After Free vulnerability occurs when the application continues to use memory after it has been freed. In this case, an attacker can craft a special PDF file that triggers a condition where Acrobat Reader uses a previously freed memory space. This condition allows the attacker to inject arbitrary code, which the application then executes. This execution occurs in the context of the current user, potentially granting the attacker the same privileges.

Conceptual Example Code

While a specific exploit code is beyond the scope of this blog post, the below pseudocode provides a simplified representation of how an attacker might leverage this vulnerability:

# Pseudocode for CVE-2025-43577 exploitation
class MaliciousPDF:
def __init__(self):
self.payload = "arbitrary_code_here"
def trigger_UAF_vulnerability(self):
# Trigger the Use After Free condition in Acrobat Reader
pass
def inject_payload(self):
# Inject the payload into the freed memory space
pass
# Create malicious PDF object
malicious_pdf = MaliciousPDF()
# Trigger UAF vulnerability and inject payload
malicious_pdf.trigger_UAF_vulnerability()
malicious_pdf.inject_payload()

This conceptual code would result in a PDF that, when opened in a vulnerable version of Acrobat Reader, would execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user.