What is CVE-2021-42738?

CVE-2021-42738 is a high-severity vulnerability in Adobe Prelude, classified under CWE-788. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2021-11-22.

How severe is CVE-2021-42738?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.

Buffer overflow in Adobe Prelude

CVE-2021-42738

Adobe Prelude version 10.1 (and earlier) is affected by a memory corruption vulnerability due to insecure handling of a malicious MXF file, potentially resulting in arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user. User interaction is required in that the victim must open a specially crafted file to exploit this vulnerability.

Published 2021-11-22 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.020 (80.1th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 80th percentile — 80.1% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.019 · newest: 0.020 · change: +0.001

Affected products

Adobe Prelude — versions unspecified
Microsoft Windows

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

helpx.adobe.com/security/products/prelude/apsb21-96.html (Patch, Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-42738?: CVE-2021-42738 is a high-severity vulnerability in Adobe Prelude, classified under CWE-788. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2021-11-22.
How severe is CVE-2021-42738?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.