CVE-2025-49561
📋 TL;DR
Adobe Animate versions 23.0.12, 24.0.9 and earlier contain a use-after-free vulnerability that could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code on a victim's system when they open a malicious file. This affects users running vulnerable versions of Adobe Animate on any operating system. Successful exploitation requires user interaction through opening a specially crafted file.
💻 Affected Systems
- Adobe Animate
📦 What is this software?
Animate by Adobe
Animate by Adobe
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete system compromise with attacker gaining full control of the victim's computer, allowing data theft, ransomware deployment, or persistent backdoor installation.
Likely Case
Local privilege escalation leading to unauthorized access to sensitive files, system configuration changes, or installation of additional malware.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper application sandboxing and user privilege restrictions, potentially resulting in application crash rather than code execution.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires user interaction (opening malicious file). No public exploit code available at time of analysis.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Update to Animate 23.0.13 or 24.0.10
Vendor Advisory: https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/animate/apsb25-73.html
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Open Adobe Animate. 2. Go to Help > Check for Updates. 3. Follow prompts to install available updates. 4. Restart Animate after installation completes.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable automatic file opening
allConfigure system to not automatically open downloaded files and require explicit user action
Restrict file execution
allUse application control policies to restrict execution of unknown or untrusted Animate files
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement application whitelisting to prevent execution of unauthorized Animate files
- Deploy endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to monitor for suspicious file execution patterns
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Animate version via Help > About Adobe Animate. If version is 23.0.12 or earlier, or 24.0.9 or earlier, system is vulnerable.Check Version:
On Windows: Check registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Animate\[Version]\ProductVersion. On macOS: Check /Applications/Adobe Animate [Year]/Adobe Animate.app/Contents/Info.plistVerify Fix Applied:
Verify version is 23.0.13 or higher, or 24.0.10 or higher after applying updates.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unexpected Animate process crashes
- Suspicious file opening events in application logs
- Unusual child process spawning from Animate
Network Indicators:
- Outbound connections from Animate to unknown IPs
- DNS requests for suspicious domains following file opening
SIEM Query:
process_name:"Animate.exe" AND (event_type:process_creation OR event_type:file_access) AND file_extension:(".fla" OR ".xfl")