# CVE-2021-28597: Adobe Photoshop Elements Privilege Escalation Vulnerability - symbolic link

> An attacker can exploit insecure temporary file creation to perform high-privileged actions via the installer without user interaction.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.2 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 28 Jun 2021
- **Updated:** 23 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-p6gc-38cf-8626

## What is CVE-2021-28597?

CVE-2021-28597 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Adobe Photoshop Elements, published on 28 Jun 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Adobe Photoshop Elements version 5.2 (and earlier) is affected by an insecure temporary file creation vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker could leverage this vulnerability to call functions against the installer to perform high privileged actions. Exploitation of this issue does not require user interaction.

Weakness: CWE-668 (Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere), CWE-379 (Creation of Temporary File in Directory with Insecure Permissions)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-28597?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Adobe Photoshop Elements.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-28597?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-28597 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2021-28597 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-28597 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Adobe Photoshop Elements

- [CVE-2011-2443](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-2443/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2021-39825](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-39825/): Adobe Photoshop Elements Edit 2021 TTF Font Parsing Out-Of-Bounds Write Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2009-3489](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-3489/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2025-21162](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21162/): Photoshop Elements | Creation of Temporary File in Directory with Incorrect Permissions (CWE-379) (medium 5.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-28597 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-28597 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Adobe Photoshop Elements, published on 28 Jun 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-28597 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Adobe Photoshop Elements. 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-2021-28597/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-28597/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-28597
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-28597
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-28597

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-28597/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.