CVE-2024-41866
📋 TL;DR
Adobe InDesign has a NULL pointer dereference vulnerability that allows attackers to crash the application by tricking users into opening malicious files. This affects users of InDesign Desktop versions ID19.4, ID18.5.2 and earlier, causing denial of service but no code execution.
💻 Affected Systems
- Adobe InDesign Desktop
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete application crash leading to loss of unsaved work and temporary disruption of design workflows
Likely Case
Application crash requiring restart, potentially causing minor productivity loss
If Mitigated
No impact if users avoid opening untrusted files or have patched versions
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires user interaction (opening malicious file), making it relatively simple but not automated
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: ID19.5 and ID18.5.3
Vendor Advisory: https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/indesign/apsb24-56.html
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Open Adobe Creative Cloud application 2. Navigate to 'Apps' tab 3. Find InDesign and click 'Update' 4. Restart computer after installation completes
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict file opening
allConfigure InDesign to only open trusted files from known sources
Use file validation
allImplement file validation workflows before opening InDesign files
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict file handling policies - only open files from trusted sources
- Use application sandboxing or virtualization for InDesign when handling untrusted files
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check InDesign version via Help > About InDesign. If version is ID19.4 or earlier, or ID18.5.2 or earlier, you are vulnerable.Check Version:
On Windows: wmic product where name="Adobe InDesign" get version
On macOS: /Applications/Adobe\ InDesign\ */Adobe\ InDesign.app/Contents/Info.plist | grep -A1 CFBundleShortVersionStringVerify Fix Applied:
Verify version is ID19.5 or later, or ID18.5.3 or later after updating📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Application crash logs from InDesign
- Unexpected termination events in system logs
Network Indicators:
- File downloads followed by InDesign crashes
SIEM Query:
EventID=1000 OR EventID=1001 AND ProcessName="InDesign.exe" OR "Adobe InDesign"