CVE-2019-7998
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 write 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 · high confidenceAdobe Photoshop CC versions 19.1.8 and earlier and 20.0.5 and earlier contain an out-of-bounds write vulnerability, a memory corruption flaw that allows writing beyond allocated buffer boundaries. Successful exploitation enables an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the targeted system, potentially achieving full system compromise.
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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Identify installed Photoshop CC versionOpen Photoshop, go to Help > About Photoshop, or on Windows right-click Photoshop.exe in Program Files > Properties > Details tab, or on Mac use Get Info on Adobe Photoshop CC.app in /ApplicationsAffected if Version number displayed is 19.1.8 or lower, OR between 20.0 and 20.0.5 inclusive
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Verify Photoshop CC editionConfirm the installation is Adobe Photoshop CC (not Photoshop Elements or other variants) - check the application name in the Start Menu, Applications folder, or Help > About Photoshop windowAffected if The installed product is Adobe Photoshop CC and version falls in affected ranges from step 1
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Confirm the vulnerable component is presentThe vulnerability exists in Photoshop's image file parsing engine. Verify Photoshop can open image files (JPEG, PNG, TIFF, or other formats) by checking that the standard file open dialog shows supported image types and the application has not had its image processing modules removedAffected if Photoshop can open and process image files - this is the component that processes the malformed images which trigger the out-of-bounds write
A user is affected if Adobe Photoshop CC version is 19.1.8 or earlier, or any version from 20.0 through 20.0.5, and the application processes image files.
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 · scopedUpdate Adobe Photoshop CC to version 19.1.9 or later (for the 19.x branch) and version 20.0.6 or later (for the 20.x branch). Until patched, exercise caution when opening untrusted image files in Photoshop.
Photoshop CC 19.1.9 or later / Photoshop CC 20.0.6 or later
- Navigate to Adobe's official security bulletin for this vulnerability on helpx.adobe.com to obtain the specific fixed version and download link
- Open Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop Application
- Navigate to the Apps tab and locate Photoshop CC
- If an update is available, click Update to install the fixed version
- Alternatively, manually download the fixed Photoshop CC version (19.1.9 or 20.0.6 and later) from Adobe's website
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-7998 — 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-2019-7998 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data