CVE-2010-0188

This is a vulnerability in older Adobe Reader/Acrobat versions that attackers can use to make the program crash or, in the worst case, take control of what’s running on the computer. It’s been used in real-world ransomware campaigns, which makes it especially important for businesses that still run these old versions.

This matters if your small business computers run Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader in the 8.x versions older than 8.2.1 or the 9.x versions older than 9.3.1. Because it was used in ransomware campaigns, you should treat it as a realistic risk when those older versions can be reached by malicious files (for example, when users open PDFs or documents from email or the internet).

This is RED because it is confirmed as actively exploited in the real world: it’s in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog and was used in ransomware campaigns. Even if exploit code isn’t publicly available, the confirmed real-world use means you should prioritize updating the affected Adobe Reader/Acrobat versions now.