CVE-2025-21126
📋 TL;DR
Adobe InDesign has an improper input validation vulnerability that allows attackers to cause denial-of-service by crashing the application. Users must open a malicious file to trigger the exploit. This affects InDesign Desktop versions ID20.0, ID19.5.1 and earlier.
💻 Affected Systems
- Adobe InDesign Desktop
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete application crash leading to denial-of-service, potential data loss if unsaved work is open
Likely Case
Application crash requiring restart, temporary disruption of work
If Mitigated
No impact if malicious files are not opened
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires social engineering to trick users into opening malicious files
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: ID20.1 and ID19.5.2
Vendor Advisory: https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/indesign/apsb25-01.html
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Open Adobe Creative Cloud application. 2. Navigate to 'Apps' tab. 3. Find InDesign and click 'Update'. 4. Restart InDesign after update completes.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict file opening
allConfigure InDesign to only open trusted files from known sources
User awareness training
allTrain users to avoid opening untrusted InDesign files
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement application whitelisting to restrict InDesign execution
- Use email/web filtering to block potentially malicious InDesign files
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check InDesign version via Help > About InDesignCheck 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 ID20.1 or ID19.5.2 or later📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Application crash logs from InDesign
- Unexpected file opening events
Network Indicators:
- Downloads of InDesign files from untrusted sources
SIEM Query:
source="*indesign*" AND (event_type="crash" OR file_name="*.indd")