CVE-2018-4927
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedAdobe InDesign versions 13.0 and below have an exploitable Untrusted Search Path vulnerability. Successful exploitation could lead to local privilege escalation.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceAdobe InDesign versions 13.0 and below contains an untrusted search path vulnerability where the application loads DLLs or executables from directories that may be controlled by an attacker, enabling local privilege escalation to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 13.0CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Adobe InDesign installation and versionCheck the InDesign executable version. Common paths: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe InDesign CC 2018\ID.exe or C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe InDesign CC 2017\ID.exe. Right-click the ID.exe file, select Properties, and view the Version tab to see the Product Version.Affected if The Product Version shows 13.0 or lower (for example 13.0, 12.2, 12.1, etc.)
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Locate InDesign program directoryOpen File Explorer and navigate to the Adobe InDesign installation folder (typically C:\Program Files\Adobe\). Verify the folder exists and contains ID.exe.Affected if InDesign is installed in a directory that is accessible to the current user context being analyzed.
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Check directory permissions for DLL planting riskRight-click the InDesign installation folder, select Properties, then Security tab. Check the permissions for Users or your specific user account. Verify whether any non-admin user account has Write or Modify permissions to this folder or subfolders.Affected if Standard users (non-admin) have Write or Modify permissions to directories in the InDesign program folder, allowing them to place malicious DLLs.
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Verify application search path accessibilityExamine directories that InDesign may load DLLs from: the application directory, System32, and any paths in the system PATH variable that are user-writable. Use icacls from command prompt: icacls "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe InDesign CC 2018" to review permissions.Affected if Any directory in the InDesign DLL search path is writable by a low-privilege user, enabling DLL planting.
You are affected if Adobe InDesign version 13.0 or below is installed and any directory in its executable or DLL search path is writable by non-administrative users.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpdate Adobe InDesign to a version newer than 13.0. Additionally, restrict file system permissions on directories in the application search path and implement application whitelisting to prevent execution of unauthorized binaries.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-4927 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-4927 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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