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IllustratorApplication · Adobe

CVE-2022-38410

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

An out-of-bounds read vulnerability in Adobe Illustrator versions 26.4 and earlier, and 25.4.7 and earlier, allows disclosure of sensitive memory contents. This information leak can be leveraged to bypass ASLR mitigation. Exploitation requires user interaction where a victim must open a malicious crafted file.

MitigationUpdate Adobe Illustrator to a version newer than 26.4 and 25.4.7 as provided by Adobe's official security bulletin. Until patched, warn users not to open untrusted .ai or other Illustrator 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
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. Check if Adobe Illustrator is installed
    Open Control Panel (Windows) or Applications folder (macOS) and look for Adobe Illustrator, or run 'Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -like "*Adobe Illustrator*"}' in PowerShell on Windows
    Affected if Adobe Illustrator is not installed on the system
  2. Determine installed Adobe Illustrator version
    Run Adobe Illustrator, go to Help > About Adobe Illustrator, or on Windows right-click the application in Control Panel > Programs and Features and select Properties to view the version
    Affected if Version displayed is within 25.0-25.4.7 or 26.0-26.4
  3. Verify version against affected ranges
    Compare the installed version number to the vulnerable ranges: 25.0 through 25.4.7, and 26.0 through 26.4. Note that versions earlier than 25.0 are not listed as affected.
    Affected if Installed version matches or falls within either 25.0-25.4.7 or 26.0-26.4 range
  4. Assess user interaction risk
    Determine if users in the environment routinely open .ai files or other Illustrator files from external or untrusted sources, as exploitation requires a victim to open a malicious crafted file.
    Affected if Users open .ai files from untrusted or unknown sources without prior security validation

The environment is affected if Adobe Illustrator versions 25.0 through 25.4.7 or 26.0 through 26.4 are installed AND users may open files from untrusted sources, since the vulnerability triggers only when a victim opens a malicious crafted file.

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 a version newer than 26.4 and 25.4.7 as provided by Adobe's official security bulletin. Until patched, warn users not to open untrusted .ai or other Illustrator files.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Adobe Illustrator 26.5 (or later) for 26.x line; Adobe Illustrator 25.5 (or later) for 25.x line

  1. 1. Close Adobe Illustrator if it is currently running.
  2. 2. Ensure all work is saved and backed up before proceeding with the update.
  3. 3. Open Adobe Creative Cloud desktop application.
  4. 4. Navigate to the 'Apps' tab or find Adobe Illustrator in the available updates section.
  5. 5. Locate Adobe Illustrator in the update list and click 'Update' next to it.
  6. 6. Wait for the download and installation to complete. This may take several minutes.
  7. 7. Once installed, verify the version by opening Illustrator and going to Help > About Adobe Illustrator.
  8. 8. Confirm the installed version is 26.5 or higher for the 26.x line, or 25.5 or higher for the 25.x line.
Caveat Minor: Normal upgrade considerations apply - verify plugin compatibility with the new version before production use

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

Fix this in Illustrator Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
4.0 hours of engineering $750
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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-2022-38410 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