Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2023-26369

Acrobat Reader

Adobe / Acrobat Reader · 0 to <= 20.005.30514

Severity
CVSS 7.8 · High
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
6.7%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2023-26369 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting Adobe Acrobat Reader. Acrobat Reader versions 23.003.20284 (and earlier), 20.005.30516 (and earlier) and 20.005.30514 (and earlier) are affected by an...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed. Listed in CISA KEV.

Who is affected?

Adobe / Acrobat Reader 0 to <= 20.005.30514.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Acrobat Reader

Acrobat Reader versions 23.003.20284 (and earlier), 20.005.30516 (and earlier) and 20.005.30514 (and earlier) are affected by an out-of-bounds write vulnerability that could result in arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user.

Exploitation of this issue requires user interaction in that a victim must open a malicious file.

Adobe Affected
Acrobat Reader
Through 20.005.30514
View vendor advisory (opens in new tab)
Published
13 Sep 2023
Exploitation Reported
14 Sep 2023
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required

Tags

nessus_scanner cisa

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CISA

Recorded 14 Sep 2023

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
CISA First 2023-09-14 00:00 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
0
0
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Nessus https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/181276 02 Jun 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

7.8 High

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS

6.7%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 09:26 UTC

    Nessus plugin available

    Scanner coverage available

  2. 00:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  3. 08:17 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  4. 19:47 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2023-26369

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2023-26369",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 7.8,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.06746,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}