CVE-2020-3783
📋 TL;DR
This CVE describes a heap corruption vulnerability in Adobe Photoshop that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on affected systems. Users running Photoshop CC 2019 versions 20.0.8 and earlier or Photoshop 2020 versions 21.1 and earlier are vulnerable. The vulnerability requires the user to open a specially crafted file.
💻 Affected Systems
- Adobe Photoshop CC 2019
- Adobe Photoshop 2020
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete system compromise with attacker gaining full control of the affected machine, potentially leading to data theft, ransomware deployment, or lateral movement within the network.
Likely Case
Local privilege escalation or arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user, allowing file system access, credential theft, and persistence mechanisms.
If Mitigated
Limited impact due to application sandboxing, network segmentation, and least privilege principles preventing lateral movement or critical system access.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires user interaction (opening a malicious file). No public exploit code was available at disclosure time, but heap corruption vulnerabilities are often weaponized.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Photoshop CC 2019: 20.0.9 or later; Photoshop 2020: 21.2 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/photoshop/apsb20-14.html
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Open Adobe Creative Cloud application. 2. Navigate to the 'Apps' tab. 3. Find Photoshop in your installed applications. 4. Click 'Update' if available. 5. Restart Photoshop after update completes.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict Photoshop file types
allConfigure system policies to block opening of untrusted Photoshop files (.psd, .psb, etc.) from unknown sources.
Application sandboxing
allRun Photoshop in a sandboxed environment to limit potential damage from exploitation.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement application whitelisting to prevent execution of unauthorized code
- Use network segmentation to isolate Photoshop workstations from critical systems
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Photoshop version via Help > About Photoshop in the application menuCheck Version:
Photoshop: Help > About Photoshop; Windows: wmic product where name='Adobe Photoshop' get version; macOS: /Applications/Adobe\ Photoshop\ */Adobe\ Photoshop.app/Contents/Info.plistVerify Fix Applied:
Verify version is Photoshop CC 2019 20.0.9+ or Photoshop 2020 21.2+📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Application crashes of Photoshop with heap corruption errors
- Unexpected child processes spawned from Photoshop.exe
Network Indicators:
- Unusual outbound connections from Photoshop workstations
- DNS requests to suspicious domains from affected systems
SIEM Query:
EventID=1000 OR EventID=1001 AND SourceName='Application Error' AND ProcessName='Photoshop.exe'