# CVE-2026-21288: Illustrator | NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476)

> An attacker can crash Adobe Illustrator by tricking a user into opening a malicious file, causing a denial of service.

- **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:** 13 Jan 2026
- **Updated:** 27 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4f5w-42g5-f95q

## What is CVE-2026-21288?

CVE-2026-21288 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Adobe Illustrator, published on 13 Jan 2026. 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

Illustrator versions 29.8.3, 30.0 and earlier are affected by a NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability that could lead to application denial-of-service. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to crash the application, causing disruption to services. 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-2026-21288?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Adobe Illustrator.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-21288?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-21288 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-21288 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-21288 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Adobe Illustrator

- [CVE-2014-0513](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-0513/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2012-2042](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-2042/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2012-0780](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-0780/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2012-2023](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-2023/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2012-2024](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-2024/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-21288 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-21288 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Adobe Illustrator, published on 13 Jan 2026. 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-2026-21288 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Adobe Illustrator. 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-2026-21288/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-21288/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-21288
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-21288
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-21288

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-21288/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.