CVE-2019-7972
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 Photoshop CC versions 19.1.8 and earlier and 20.0.5 and earlier have a type confusion vulnerability. Successful exploitation could lead to arbitrary code execution.
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 Photoshop CC contains a type confusion vulnerability in versions 19.1.8 and earlier (Photoshop CC 2018) and 20.0.5 and earlier (Photoshop CC 2019). The vulnerability allows an attacker to manipulate how the software interprets object types, potentially leading to memory corruption and arbitrary code execution when processing specially crafted files.
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<= 19.1.8>= 20.0, <= 20.0.5CVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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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Locate installed Photoshop CC versionOpen Photoshop and go to Help > About Photoshop, or right-click Photoshop.exe in the installation folder and select Properties > Details to view the Product VersionAffected if Version displays as 19.1.8 or lower (Photoshop CC 2018), or as 20.0.5 or lower (Photoshop CC 2019)
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Identify Photoshop release yearVersion numbers 19.x indicate Photoshop CC 2018; version numbers 20.x indicate Photoshop CC 2019Affected if The 19.x release line contains versions up to 19.1.8, and the 20.x release line contains versions up to 20.0.5, both of which are vulnerable
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Assess file processing riskThe vulnerability is triggered when Photoshop parses specially crafted image files - determine if users in your environment open files from external or untrusted sourcesAffected if Users process image files from sources outside the organization
Environment is affected if Photoshop CC is installed at version 19.1.8 or earlier (2018) or between 20.0 and 20.0.5 (2019) and users open files from untrusted sources
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.
dbcve · scopedUpgrade Adobe Photoshop CC to version 19.1.9 or later for the 2018 release, or version 20.0.6 or later for the 2019 release. Organizations should deploy these updates through their software distribution channels and verify completion across all affected systems.
Photoshop CC 20.0.6 (or later) for version 20.x; Photoshop CC 19.1.9 (or later) for version 19.x
- 1. Close Adobe Photoshop completely before applying any updates
- 2. Open Adobe Creative Cloud desktop application
- 3. Navigate to the Apps section in Creative Cloud
- 4. Find Adobe Photoshop CC in the list of installed apps
- 5. Click the Update button next to Photoshop to install the latest version
- 6. Alternatively, download the security update directly from helpx.adobe.com/security/products/photoshop.html
- 7. Restart Photoshop after the update is installed
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-7972 — 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-2019-7972 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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