CVE-2025-54255VulnerabilityPublished 9 Sep 2025Updated 1 Oct 2025

CVE-2025-54255: Adobe Acrobat Reader · Violation of Secure Design Principles

Affects Adobe Acrobat ReaderSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.0 Medium.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

4.0Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 17% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: Low
Availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact on the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 9 Sep 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-25.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Adobe Acrobat Reader	Affected =0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-54255, European organizations should implement a multi-layered approach: 1) Restrict local access to systems running vulnerable versions of Acrobat Reader by enforcing strict access controls and monitoring for unauthorized access attempts. 2) Employ application whitelisting and endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to detect and prevent exploitation attempts locally. 3) Maintain strict patch management policies and monitor Adobe's security advisories for the release of patches addressing this vulnerability; apply updates promptly once available. 4) Use sandboxing or containerization techniques for running Acrobat Reader to limit the impact of any potential exploitation. 5) Educate users and administrators about the risks of local access vulnerabilities and enforce least privilege principles to minimize the number of users with local system access. 6) Implement integrity verification mechanisms for critical documents, such as digital signatures or hash checks, to detect unauthorized modifications. 7) Conduct regular security audits and vulnerability assessments focusing on endpoint security to identify and remediate potential attack vectors that could lead to local access exploitation.

Description

Acrobat Reader versions 24.001.30254, 20.005.30774, 25.001.20672 and earlier are affected by a Violation of Secure Design Principles vulnerability that could result in a security feature bypass impacting integrity. An attacker does not have to be authenticated. Exploitation of this issue does not require user interaction, and scope is unchanged.

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-54255 primarily concerns the integrity of documents and the security features within Acrobat Reader. Since Acrobat Reader is extensively used across various sectors including government, finance, legal, and healthcare, any compromise of document integrity could lead to unauthorized modification of sensitive documents, potentially affecting compliance with data protection regulations such as GDPR. Although the vulnerability requires local access, this could be exploited in environments where endpoint security is weak or where attackers have gained foothold through other means. The lack of user interaction needed for exploitation increases the risk in controlled environments where users might not be aware of malicious activities. The integrity impact could undermine trust in document authenticity, which is critical for contractual, legal, and regulatory processes. Additionally, organizations relying on Acrobat Reader for secure document workflows might face operational disruptions if attackers leverage this vulnerability to bypass security controls. However, the absence of confidentiality and availability impacts limits the scope of damage to data tampering rather than data leakage or service disruption.

CWE-657Violation of Secure Design Principles (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessOWASP Top 10 A06:2025: Insecure Design (opens in a new tab)
The product violates well-established principles for secure design.
MITRE discourages mapping vulnerabilities to this broad entry; the root cause is usually a more specific weakness.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Secure Design Principles (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

helpx.adobe.com/security/products/acrobat/apsb25-85.html (opens in a new tab)

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 2 Oct 2025, 00:15 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-657

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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