CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2016-6979 — Adobe Acrobat security vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.8

Use-after-free vulnerability in Adobe Reader and Acrobat before 11.0.18, Acrobat and Acrobat Reader DC Classic before 15.006.30243, and Acrobat and Acrobat Reader DC Continuous before 15.020.20039 on Windows and OS X allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-1089, CVE-2016-1091, CVE-2016-6944, CVE-2016-6945, CVE-2016-6946, CVE-2016-6949, CVE-2016-6952, CVE-2016-6953, CVE-2016-6961, CVE-2016-6962, CVE-2016-6963, CVE-2016-6964, CVE-2016-6965, CVE-2016-6967, CVE-2016-6968, CVE-2016-6969, CVE-2016-6971, CVE-2016-6988, and CVE-2016-6993.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.0)
Published
2016-10-13
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
windows/system
Weaknesses
CWE-416

Affected products

  • adobe / acrobat
  • adobe / acrobat_dc
  • adobe / acrobat_reader_dc
  • adobe / reader

Showing 4 representative product identities from 6 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Use-after-free, double free, and expired resource use

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace ownership, references, callbacks, asynchronous tasks, and teardown paths around the affected object or resource.
  • Identify reachable inputs and timing or state transitions that can release the object while references remain.
  • Confirm affected builds, allocators, feature flags, architectures, and process privileges.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the maintained ownership or lifetime fix and rebuild all artifacts containing the affected native code.
  • Use explicit ownership, safe reference management, cancellation and join semantics, and idempotent teardown.
  • Add deterministic lifetime tests plus isolated sanitizer and concurrency coverage for shutdown and error paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

The detailed catalog view below loads this exact record, its source evidence, and the full seven-phase agentic change plan.