CVE-2025-54210
📋 TL;DR
Adobe InDesign versions 20.4, 19.5.4 and earlier contain an out-of-bounds write vulnerability that allows arbitrary code execution when a user opens a malicious file. This affects all users running vulnerable versions of InDesign Desktop software.
💻 Affected Systems
- Adobe InDesign Desktop
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Full system compromise with attacker gaining the same privileges as the logged-in user, potentially leading to data theft, ransomware deployment, or lateral movement.
Likely Case
Local privilege escalation leading to malware installation, data exfiltration, or persistence mechanisms being established on the victim's system.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper application sandboxing and user privilege restrictions, potentially containing the exploit to the application context.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires user interaction (opening malicious file). No public exploit code available at this time.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Update to InDesign 20.5 or 19.5.5
Vendor Advisory: https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/indesign/apsb25-79.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 application control policies to restrict opening of untrusted InDesign files
User awareness training
allTrain users to only open InDesign files from trusted sources
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement application whitelisting to prevent execution of malicious code
- Run InDesign with reduced user privileges or in sandboxed environment
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check InDesign version via Help > About InDesign menuCheck Version:
On Windows: Check Add/Remove Programs. On macOS: Check Applications folder or use 'mdls -name kMDItemVersion /Applications/Adobe\ InDesign\ 2024/Adobe\ InDesign.app'Verify Fix Applied:
Verify version is 20.5 or higher, or 19.5.5 or higher📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unexpected InDesign crashes
- Suspicious child processes spawned from InDesign
Network Indicators:
- Unexpected outbound connections from InDesign process
SIEM Query:
Process creation where parent_process_name contains 'InDesign' and (process_name not in ['AdobeIPCBroker.exe', 'Adobe Desktop Service.exe'])