CVE-2021-28597: Adobe Photoshop Elements Privilege Escalation Vulnerability - symbolic link

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2021-06-28 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-379

Description

Adobe Photoshop Elements version 5.2 (and earlier) is affected by an insecure temporary file creation vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker could leverage this vulnerability to call functions against the installer to perform high privileged actions. Exploitation of this issue does not require user interaction.

Affected products

Adobe Photoshop Elements: before 5.3 — fixed in 5.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/photoshop_elements/apsb21-46.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/photoshop_elements/apsb21-46.html

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