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Photoshop 2020Application · Adobe

CVE-2020-3789

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-03-25
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 21.1 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 versions 20.0.8 and earlier, and Photoshop 2020 versions 21.1 and earlier have a memory corruption 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 confidence

This is a memory corruption vulnerability in Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 (versions 20.0.8 and earlier) and Photoshop 2020 (versions 21.1 and earlier). Successful exploitation allows arbitrary code execution, likely through a specially crafted file that triggers heap corruption or similar memory safety violation during parsing or processing.

MitigationApply the vendor-supplied security updates from Adobe to patch the memory corruption vulnerability. Prioritize updating systems running affected versions given the critical CVSS score and potential for remote code execution.

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
Photoshop 2020Application
Affected:>= 21.0, <= 21.1
Photoshop CcApplication
Affected:>= 20.0, <= 20.0.8

CVSS 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:3.1/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify if Adobe Photoshop is installed
    On Windows, check for Photoshop in Program Files or the registry. On Mac, check /Applications for Photoshop. Alternatively, run 'Photoshop' and use Help > About Photoshop to see the version number.
    Affected if Photoshop is present on the system
  2. Determine the installed Photoshop version
    Open Photoshop and go to Help > About Photoshop, or right-click the Photoshop executable and select Properties > Details to view the version. On Windows, you can also query the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop\InstallVersion.
    Affected if A version number is displayed that falls within the affected ranges
  3. Compare against affected version 21.0 to 21.1 for Photoshop 2020
    If the version starts with 21.x, verify whether the full version number is between 21.0 and 21.1 inclusive. Examples include 21.0, 21.0.1, 21.0.2, 21.1.
    Affected if The installed version is 21.0, 21.0.1, 21.0.2, or 21.1
  4. Compare against affected version 20.0 to 20.0.8 for Photoshop CC 2019
    If the version starts with 20.x, verify whether the full version number is between 20.0 and 20.0.8 inclusive. Examples include 20.0, 20.0.1, 20.0.5, 20.0.8.
    Affected if The installed version is 20.0 through 20.0.8 inclusive

The environment is affected if Photoshop 2020 version 21.0 through 21.1, or Photoshop CC 2019 version 20.0 through 20.0.8, is installed.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 21.1
Interim mitigation

Apply the vendor-supplied security updates from Adobe to patch the memory corruption vulnerability. Prioritize updating systems running affected versions given the critical CVSS score and potential for remote code execution.

Recommended fix High confidence

Photoshop CC 2019: 20.0.9 or later | Photoshop 2020: 21.2 or later (or latest available release)

  1. Open Adobe Photoshop
  2. Go to Help > Check for Updates
  3. Allow Adobe to check for and install the latest security updates
  4. Alternatively, manually download the latest Photoshop version from adobe.com
  5. Restart Photoshop after the update completes
  6. Verify the update was applied by checking Help > About Photoshop for the version number
Caveat Standard Adobe update; ensure system meets requirements for new version

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Photoshop 2020 Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,600
Get the upgrade done

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Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-3789 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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