CVE-2021-42268 is a vulnerability identified in Adobe Animate version 21.0.9 and earlier, characterized as a NULL pointer dereference (CWE-476). This flaw occurs during the parsing of specially crafted FLA files, which are project files used by Adobe Animate to store multimedia animations. The vulnerability arises when the application attempts to access or dereference a pointer that has not been properly initialized or has been set to NULL, leading to an application crash. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by convincing a user to open a maliciously crafted FLA file, which triggers the NULL pointer dereference and causes the application to terminate unexpectedly, resulting in a denial-of-service (DoS) condition. Importantly, the attack does not require any authentication but does require user interaction, as the victim must open the malicious file. The impact is limited to the context of the current user, meaning that the denial-of-service affects only the user session running Adobe Animate. There are no known exploits in the wild as of the publication date, and no official patches or updates have been linked in the provided information. The vulnerability does not appear to allow for code execution or privilege escalation but can disrupt workflows dependent on Adobe Animate by causing application crashes.

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2021-42268 is operational disruption due to denial-of-service conditions affecting Adobe Animate users. Organizations involved in multimedia production, digital content creation, advertising, and education that rely on Adobe Animate may experience workflow interruptions, potentially delaying project delivery and increasing operational costs. Since the vulnerability requires user interaction, the risk is higher in environments where users frequently exchange or open FLA files from external or untrusted sources. The confidentiality and integrity of data are not directly impacted by this vulnerability; however, repeated crashes could lead to data loss if unsaved work is lost during the application termination. The availability of Adobe Animate as a tool is affected, which could have downstream effects on business continuity in creative departments. Given that exploitation does not require authentication but does require user action, social engineering or phishing campaigns could be used to deliver malicious files, increasing the attack surface. However, the lack of known exploits in the wild and the medium severity rating suggest the threat is moderate but should not be ignored.

To mitigate the risk posed by CVE-2021-42268, European organizations should implement several targeted measures beyond generic advice: 1) Educate users, especially those in creative roles, about the risks of opening FLA files from untrusted or unknown sources and encourage verification of file origins before opening. 2) Implement strict email and file filtering policies to detect and quarantine suspicious FLA files or attachments, leveraging advanced malware detection tools that can analyze file contents. 3) Enforce application whitelisting and sandboxing for Adobe Animate to limit the impact of crashes and prevent potential lateral movement or escalation if other vulnerabilities are present. 4) Regularly back up project files and encourage users to save work frequently to minimize data loss from unexpected application crashes. 5) Monitor Adobe’s security advisories for patches or updates addressing this vulnerability and prioritize timely deployment once available. 6) Consider restricting the use of Adobe Animate to trusted internal networks or virtual desktop environments where file access can be more tightly controlled. 7) Employ endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to detect abnormal application behavior indicative of exploitation attempts. These measures collectively reduce the likelihood of successful exploitation and limit operational impact.