CVE-2011-2462CRITICAL · 9.8Patch second

Adobe Reader and Acrobat Universal 3D Memory Corruption Vulnerability

CVE-2011-2462 is a security vulnerability in Adobe Reader and Acrobat, added to CISA KEV on June 8, 2022. Patch order: second of four.

Added to CISA KEV · Updated · Adobe Reader and Acrobat

What is CVE-2011-2462?

The Universal 3D (U3D) component in Adobe Reader and Acrobat contains a memory corruption vulnerability which could allow remote attackers to execute code or cause denial-of-service (DoS).

VulnCheck tracked exploitation 3836 days before CISA's KEV listing. VulnCheck's broader catalog of in-the-wild exploitation evidence picked this up before it landed on CISA's formal list. Per-CVE fact about this entry; not a population claim about lead time in general.

Who is affected by CVE-2011-2462?

Affects anyone opening, editing, or signing PDFs in Adobe Acrobat or Reader. For a CPA or legal practice, PDFs are typically client tax returns, engagement letters, signed agreements, and discovery documents — opening a malicious PDF runs attacker code in the user's session, which can pivot to file shares or email.

What should I do about CVE-2011-2462?

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

If you don't have someone in-house to verify the patch deployed across every endpoint — or you're not sure whether you're affected — that's exactly the kind of triage we do. Request a free review.

Insurance readiness

Your insurer will ask if this is patched.

Unpatched entries on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list are exactly what cyber-insurance carrier questionnaires probe for, and knowing which controls they check is how you keep a renewal from stalling.

Get the free carrier questionnaire →

Severity

CVSS base score: 9.8 — CRITICAL

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Weakness classification: CWE-787

CVSS, severity, and CWE data from the National Vulnerability Database (NVD). This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.

CISA due date

CISA's listed due date: June 22, 2022.

Federal civilian agencies work under CISA's Binding Operational Directive 26-04, which replaced BOD 22-01 on June 10, 2026. It sets the deadline for each affected system by:

  • How exposed that system is to the internet
  • Whether the attack can be automated
  • How much control it gives an attacker

Its table gives catalogued vulnerabilities 3 or 14 days.

None of this binds a private business, but treat the date as a strong recommendation, especially if you handle regulated data (HIPAA, GLBA, ABA model rules).

EPSS

EPSS score: 88.9% — higher than 100% of all scored CVEs.

EPSS estimates the probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days. Every entry on this site is already confirmed exploited, so read it as relative urgency among the things you still have open, not as permission to wait.

Score dated 2026-10-16, from the FIRST.org Exploit Prediction Scoring System.

Source

This entry comes from CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, public US-Government data we pull daily. The plain-language framing and the what-to-do guidance above are ours. View the original entry on cisa.gov.

Weekly digest

Get the weekly digest in your inbox.

Drop your email and we send you what changed in your watch each week. If nothing changed, we tell you that too.

Watching: Adobe