CVE-2016-8856: Foxitsoftware Reader

High severity, CVSS 7.8. EPSS: 0.8% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

Foxit Reader for Mac 2.1.0.0804 and earlier and Foxit Reader for Linux 2.1.0.0805 and earlier suffered from a vulnerability where weak file permissions could be exploited by attackers to execute arbitrary code. After the installation, Foxit Reader's core files were world-writable by default, allowing an attacker to overwrite them with backdoor code, which when executed by privileged user would result in Privilege Escalation, Code Execution, or both.

Affected products

• Foxitsoftware Reader: up to and including 2.1.0.0804; up to and including 2.1.0.0805

Published 2016-10-31. Last modified 2026-06-17.