{"id":63953,"date":"2025-08-10T11:40:46","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T11:40:46","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-09-05T10:19:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T16:19:42","slug":"cve-2025-43577-use-after-free-vulnerability-in-acrobat-reader-leading-to-arbitrary-code-execution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-43577-use-after-free-vulnerability-in-acrobat-reader-leading-to-arbitrary-code-execution\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-43577: Use After Free Vulnerability in Acrobat Reader Leading to Arbitrary Code Execution<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-47168-use-after-free-vulnerability-in-microsoft-office-word-allowing-unauthorized-code-execution\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"73085\">vulnerability that could result in arbitrary code<\/a> execution, potentially allowing an attacker to take control of the affected system. Given the prevalence of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-43576-use-after-free-vulnerability-in-acrobat-reader-leading-to-arbitrary-code-execution\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"78244\">Acrobat Reader<\/a> across diverse sectors, from personal computing to large corporations, this vulnerability warrants immediate attention and mitigation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-43577<br \/>\nSeverity: High (7.8 CVSS Score)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Local<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: None<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49691-heap-based-buffer-overflow-in-windows-media-leading-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"72129\">Potential system<\/a> compromise or data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-437133468\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 720px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 22px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center; letter-spacing: -0.02em;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 10px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 42px; height: 42px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    Share secrets securely\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 14px; color: #d1d5db;\">\r\n    Ameeba is private infrastructure for communication and sensitive work built on encrypted identity instead of exposed corporate identity systems.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 18px; color: #a1a1aa;\">\r\n    Passwords, credentials, confidential files, screenshots, internal discussions, sensitive AI context, and private coordination should not become exposed across ordinary communication platforms.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #e4e4e7;\">\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Private Spaces for organizations and teams<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, files, and notes<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Sensitive AI work and protected collaboration<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Built for information that cannot leak<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #ffffff;\">\r\n    Our mission is to secure human work alongside AI.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Download Ameeba\r\n    <\/a>\r\n\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Learn More\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-43573-acrobat-reader-use-after-free-vulnerability-leading-to-arbitrary-code-execution\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"80145\">Acrobat Reader<\/a> | 24.001.30235<br \/>\nAcrobat Reader | 20.005.30763<br \/>\nAcrobat Reader | 25.001.20521 and earlier versions<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The identified <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-43193-critical-memory-handling-vulnerability-in-macos\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"72130\">vulnerability resides in the memory<\/a> management of Acrobat Reader. A Use After Free <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-27042-a-critical-memory-corruption-vulnerability-in-video-processing\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"74085\">vulnerability occurs when the application continues to use memory<\/a> after it has been freed. In this case, an attacker can craft a special PDF file that triggers a condition where Acrobat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-32451-memory-corruption-vulnerability-in-foxit-reader-leading-to-arbitrary-code-execution\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"74408\">Reader uses a previously freed memory<\/a> space. This condition allows the attacker to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-36014-ibm-integration-bus-code-injection-vulnerability\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"72268\">inject arbitrary code<\/a>, which the application then executes. This execution occurs in the context of the current user, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49759-sql-injection-vulnerability-in-sql-server-potentially-enabling-privilege-escalation-and-data-leakage\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"79197\">potentially granting the attacker the same privileges<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-2439908758\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>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:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\"># Pseudocode for CVE-2025-43577 exploitation\nclass MaliciousPDF:\ndef __init__(self):\nself.payload = &quot;arbitrary_code_here&quot;\ndef trigger_UAF_vulnerability(self):\n# Trigger the Use After Free condition in Acrobat Reader\npass\ndef inject_payload(self):\n# Inject the payload into the freed memory space\npass\n# Create malicious PDF object\nmalicious_pdf = MaliciousPDF()\n# Trigger UAF vulnerability and inject payload\nmalicious_pdf.trigger_UAF_vulnerability()\nmalicious_pdf.inject_payload()<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>This conceptual code would result in a PDF that, when opened in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-43588-out-of-bounds-write-vulnerability-in-substance3d-sampler-versions-5-0-and-earlier\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"73507\">vulnerable version<\/a> of Acrobat Reader, would execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[80],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-63953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","attack_vector-rce"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63953"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72559,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63953\/revisions\/72559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63953"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=63953"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=63953"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=63953"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=63953"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=63953"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=63953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}