CVE-2024-53952
📋 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 ID19.5, ID18.5.4 and earlier, leading to denial of service but not remote code execution.
💻 Affected Systems
- Adobe InDesign Desktop
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete application crash and data loss for unsaved work when opening a malicious file, disrupting creative workflows and productivity.
Likely Case
Temporary denial of service where the application crashes upon opening a malicious file, requiring restart and potentially losing unsaved work.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact with proper user training and file validation controls in place to prevent opening untrusted files.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires user to open malicious file. No authentication bypass needed but social engineering required.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Update to InDesign version ID19.5.1 or ID18.5.5
Vendor Advisory: https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/indesign/apsb24-97.html
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Open Adobe Creative Cloud application. 2. Navigate to 'Apps' tab. 3. Find Adobe InDesign. 4. Click 'Update' button. 5. Restart computer after installation completes.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict file opening
allConfigure InDesign to only open files from trusted sources using application restrictions or group policies.
User awareness training
allTrain users to only open InDesign files from trusted sources and verify file integrity.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement application whitelisting to restrict InDesign execution to approved systems only
- Deploy email/web filtering to block malicious file attachments and downloads
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check InDesign version via Help > About InDesign. If version is ID19.5 or earlier, or ID18.5.4 or earlier, system is vulnerable.Check Version:
On Windows: Check via Adobe Creative Cloud app or Help > About InDesign. On macOS: Adobe InDesign > About InDesign.Verify Fix Applied:
Verify version is ID19.5.1 or later, or ID18.5.5 or later after applying update.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Application crash logs from InDesign
- Unexpected termination events in system logs
Network Indicators:
- File downloads from untrusted sources followed by InDesign crashes
SIEM Query:
EventID=1000 OR EventID=1001 AND ProcessName="InDesign.exe" AND ExceptionCode=0xC0000005