# CVE-2024-20721: T5 Acrobat JS vulnerability - Exploitable crash via t5::javascript::get_page_num_words

> An attacker can cause a denial of service in Adobe Acrobat Reader by tricking a user into opening a malicious 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:** 15 Jan 2024
- **Updated:** 3 Jun 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-x2gj-v23f-mw5p

## What is CVE-2024-20721?

CVE-2024-20721 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat, published on 15 Jan 2024. 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

Acrobat Reader T5 (MSFT Edge) versions 120.0.2210.91 and earlier are affected by an Improper Input Validation vulnerability. 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-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-20721?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Edge Chromium.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-20721?

No fix has been published for CVE-2024-20721 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2024-20721 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-20721 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## 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-2024-20721 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-20721 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat, published on 15 Jan 2024. 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-2024-20721 in the wild and no public exploit code.

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-2024-20721/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-20721/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-20721
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-20721
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-20721

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-20721/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.