dbcve.org
IllustratorApplication · Adobe

CVE-2022-38409

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-09-16
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 26.4 or later.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
No privileges

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 Illustrator versions 26.4 (and earlier) and 25.4.7 (and earlier) are affected by an out-of-bounds read vulnerability that could lead to disclosure of sensitive memory. An attacker could leverage this vulnerability to bypass mitigations such as ASLR. Exploitation of this issue requires user interaction in that a victim must open a malicious file.

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 confidence

Out-of-bounds read vulnerability in Adobe Illustrator versions 26.4 and earlier, and 25.4.7 and earlier. When a victim opens a specially crafted malicious file, the application reads memory beyond allocated boundaries, potentially exposing sensitive memory contents and enabling ASLR bypass.

MitigationUpdate Adobe Illustrator to the latest patched version provided by Adobe. Additionally, educate users to avoid opening files from untrusted or unknown sources, as exploitation requires user interaction.

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
IllustratorApplication
Affected:>= 25.0, <= 25.4.7>= 26.0, <= 26.4

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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 checks

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

  1. Verify Adobe Illustrator is installed
    Check for Adobe Illustrator in the system. On Windows, look in Program Files/Adobe or check the registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Adobe Illustrator*.exe. On macOS, check /Applications/Adobe Illustrator*.app
    Affected if Adobe Illustrator is present on the system
  2. Determine installed Illustrator version
    Open Adobe Illustrator, then go to Help > About Adobe Illustrator (Windows) or Illustrator > About Adobe Illustrator (macOS). Alternatively, right-click the executable or app file and select Properties > Details to view the Product Version
    Affected if A version number is displayed that falls within 25.0 to 25.4.7 or 26.0 to 26.4
  3. Compare version against affected ranges
    Review the identified version number and compare it to the affected ranges: 25.0 through 25.4.7, or 26.0 through 26.4
    Affected if The installed version is 25.0, 25.1, 25.2, 25.3, 25.4, 25.4.1, 25.4.2, 25.4.3, 25.4.4, 25.4.5, 25.4.6, 25.4.7, 26.0, 26.1, 26.2, 26.3, or 26.4
  4. Confirm exploit trigger condition
    The vulnerability is triggered only when a user opens a specially crafted malicious file. Review recent file opening activity or pending untrusted files in the system
    Affected if The affected version is confirmed AND the user has opened or may open files from untrusted sources

You are affected if Adobe Illustrator version 25.0 through 25.4.7 or 26.0 through 26.4 is installed and users open files from untrusted sources.

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 26.4
Interim mitigation

Update Adobe Illustrator to the latest patched version provided by Adobe. Additionally, educate users to avoid opening files from untrusted or unknown sources, as exploitation requires user interaction.

Recommended fix High confidence

Adobe Illustrator 26.5 or later (or latest 27.x release)

  1. 1. Close Adobe Illustrator if it is currently running.
  2. 2. Open Adobe Creative Cloud desktop application or navigate to https://creativecloud.adobe.com/
  3. 3. Locate Adobe Illustrator in your installed applications.
  4. 4. Click on the update option to install the latest version, or manually download Illustrator version 26.5 or later from Adobe's official website.
  5. 5. Verify the update was successful by opening Illustrator and checking the version number under Help > About Adobe Illustrator.

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

Fix this in Illustrator Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,190
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,904.

Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2022-38409 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