CVE-2023-21591
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 InDesign version 18.0 (and earlier), 17.4 (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 confidenceAdobe InDesign versions 18.0 and earlier, as well as 17.4 and earlier, contain an out-of-bounds read vulnerability in file parsing logic. When a user opens a specially crafted malicious file, the software reads memory beyond allocated buffer boundaries, potentially exposing sensitive memory contents. This information disclosure can be leveraged to defeat ASLR by leaking memory addresses, facilitating subsequent exploitation.
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>= 17.0, <= 17.4= 18.0CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Determine installed Adobe InDesign versionOpen InDesign and go to Help > About Adobe InDesign, or check the application version in the installation directory. On Windows, you can also check Add/Remove Programs or the executable properties. On macOS, right-click the application in Applications and select Get Info.Affected if The displayed version is 18.0 or falls within 17.0 through 17.4 inclusive
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Confirm version falls within affected rangeCompare your installed version number to the known affected versions: 17.0, 17.1, 17.2, 17.3, 17.4, and 18.0. Only these specific versions are vulnerable.Affected if The version matches 17.0-17.4 or equals 18.0 exactly
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Verify file parsing is accessibleThe vulnerability is triggered when InDesign parses certain file types. Confirm you can open INDD, IDML, or other supported file formats, as this is the parsing logic where the out-of-bounds read occurs.Affected if File parsing functionality is available and the application can open document files
You are affected if Adobe InDesign version is 18.0 or any version from 17.0 through 17.4, and you open the specially crafted malicious file.
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 InDesign to the latest patched version provided by Adobe. Since exploitation requires user interaction, maintain vigilance against unsolicited files and consider disabling JavaScript in InDesign as an additional defense-in-depth measure.
Adobe InDesign 18.1 (or InDesign 17.4.1 for systems requiring older major version)
- Check current InDesign version by going to Help > About InDesign
- Close all Adobe applications before updating
- Open Adobe Creative Cloud desktop application or navigate to https://creativecloud.adobe.com/
- Navigate to the Apps tab and find Adobe InDesign
- Click Update next to InDesign to install the latest version
- Alternatively, download InDesign 18.1 or 17.4.1 directly from Adobe's official website: https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install.html
- Restart InDesign after update completes
- Verify the update by checking Help > About InDesign shows version 18.1 or 17.4.1
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-21591 — 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-2023-21591 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