# CVE-2008-4071: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can crash the browser via a malicious URL in an Adobe Acrobat ActiveX control, requiring user interaction.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 15 Sep 2008
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-jprq-ffw9-m95p

## What is CVE-2008-4071?

CVE-2008-4071 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat, published on 15 Sep 2008. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

A certain ActiveX control in Adobe Acrobat 9, when used with Microsoft Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (browser crash) via an src property value with an invalid acroie:// URL.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2008-4071?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Adobe Acrobat.

## How do I fix CVE-2008-4071?

No fix has been published for CVE-2008-4071 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2008-4071 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2008-4071 exists.

Public exploit code:

- Adobe Acrobat 9 - ActiveX Remote Denial of Service (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat

- [CVE-2021-28550](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-28550/): Adobe Acrobat and Reader Use-After-Free (critical 9.6, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2021-21017](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-21017/): Adobe Acrobat and Reader Heap-based Buffer Overflow (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2014-0546](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-0546/): Adobe Reader and Acrobat Sandbox Bypass (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2014-0496](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-0496/): Adobe Reader and Acrobat Use-After-Free (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-3346](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-3346/): Adobe Reader and Acrobat Memory Corruption (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2008-4071 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2008-4071 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat, published on 15 Sep 2008. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2008-4071 exists.

Affected product: Adobe Acrobat. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-4071/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-4071/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2008-4071
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2008-4071
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2008-4071

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-4071/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.