# CVE-2021-40785: Adobe Premiere Elements Null Pointer Dereference Application denial-of-service

> An attacker can cause a denial of service in Adobe Premiere Elements by tricking a user into opening a specially crafted file.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 16 Mar 2022
- **Updated:** 23 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-26cr-gfxr-8xq9

## What is CVE-2021-40785?

CVE-2021-40785 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Adobe Premiere Elements, published on 16 Mar 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Adobe Premiere Elements 20210809.daily.2242976 (and earlier) is affected by a Null pointer dereference vulnerability when parsing a specially crafted file. An unauthenticated attacker could leverage this vulnerability to achieve an application denial-of-service in the context of the current user. Exploitation of this issue requires user interaction in that a victim must open a malicious file.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-40785?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Adobe Premiere Elements.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-40785?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-40785 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2021-40785 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-40785 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Adobe Premiere Elements

- [CVE-2022-34235](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-34235/): Adobe Premiere Elements Uncontrolled Search Path Element Privilege Escalation (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2021-40786](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-40786/): Adobe Premiere Elements M4A file memory corruption vulnerability could lead to arbitrary code execution (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2021-40787](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-40787/): Adobe Premiere Elements M4A file memory corruption vulnerability could lead to arbitrary code execution (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2021-42526](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-42526/): Adobe Premiere Elements WAV file memory corruption vulnerability could lead to arbitrary code execution (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2021-42527](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-42527/): Adobe Premiere Elements PSD file memory corruption vulnerability could lead to arbitrary code execution (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-40785 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-40785 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Adobe Premiere Elements, published on 16 Mar 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-40785 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Adobe Premiere 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-2021-40785/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-40785/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-40785
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-40785
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-40785

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-40785/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.