CVE-2019-7981
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 an out of bound read vulnerability. Successful exploitation could lead to memory leak.
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 versions 19.1.8 and earlier and 20.0.5 and earlier contain an out-of-bounds read vulnerability where the software accesses memory outside allocated buffer boundaries. Successful exploitation allows attackers to read sensitive data from memory, leading to information disclosure in the form of a memory leak.
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
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
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 Adobe Photoshop CC installationCheck common installation paths: Windows typically at C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC20XX\ or use Windows Control Panel > Programs and Features to find the entryAffected if Photoshop CC is installed on the system
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Determine installed Photoshop version numberOpen Photoshop, go to Help > About Photoshop, or check the application entry in Windows Programs and Features panel for the version number displayed thereAffected if Version number is visible and can be compared against vulnerable ranges
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Compare version against affected range 19.xIf the version begins with 19 (e.g., 19.0, 19.1.0, 19.1.8), verify if it is 19.1.8 or any earlier 19.x release. All versions 19.0 through 19.1.8 are affectedAffected if Installed version is 19.x and is 19.1.8 or lower
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Compare version against affected range 20.xIf the version begins with 20, verify if it falls between 20.0 and 20.0.5 inclusive. Check exact minor version such as 20.0.0 through 20.0.5Affected if Installed version is 20.0.0 through 20.0.5 inclusive
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Verify vulnerability applicability conditionsThis is an out-of-bounds read vulnerability in memory handling. The flaw is present in the core application code and triggers when processing certain image data. The vulnerability does not require a specific user configuration to be present; any use of the affected version could trigger the memory leakAffected if Running any affected version (19.1.8 or earlier, or 20.0 through 20.0.5) means the vulnerable code is present and the system is potentially affected
A system is affected if Adobe Photoshop CC version is 19.1.8 or earlier, OR version 20.0.0 through 20.0.5 inclusive.
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 Photoshop CC to a patched version beyond 19.1.8 and 20.0.5. For enterprise environments, deploy the update through standard software distribution channels and verify functionality post-update.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-7981 — 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-2019-7981 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data