CVE-2023-44341
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 versions ID18.5 (and earlier) and ID17.4.2 (and earlier) are affected by a NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker could leverage this vulnerability to achieve an application denial-of-service in the context of the current user. 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 · moderate confidenceAdobe InDesign is vulnerable to a NULL Pointer Dereference that can be triggered when a user opens a specially crafted malicious file. This causes the application to crash, resulting in a denial-of-service condition. The attacker does not need authentication but requires victim interaction to open the file.
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<= 17.4.2>= 18.0, < 18.5.1CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/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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Confirm Adobe InDesign is installedOn Windows, check Start Menu for Adobe InDesign or look for the installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe InDesign). On macOS, check /Applications for Adobe InDesign.app.Affected if Adobe InDesign is present on the system
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Find the installed InDesign version on WindowsOpen Registry Editor and navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\InDesign\(version folder) - check the 'Version' or 'ProductVersion' value. Alternatively, open InDesign and go to Help > About Adobe InDesign to display the version number.Affected if The displayed version matches <= 17.4.2 OR >= 18.0 and < 18.5.1
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Find the installed InDesign version on macOSRight-click Adobe InDesign.app in /Applications and select Get Info, or run 'defaults read /Applications/Adobe\ InDesign\ 2024/Adobe\ InDesign\ 2024.app/Contents/Info CFBundleShortVersionString' (adjust path for your version).Affected if The displayed version matches <= 17.4.2 OR >= 18.0 and < 18.5.1
You are affected if Adobe InDesign is installed and its version falls within the range of 17.4.2 or earlier, OR version 18.0 through 18.5.0.
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 · scoped18.5.1
Update Adobe InDesign to version ID18.5.1 or later for the ID18.x line, or ID17.4.3 or later for the ID17.x line. Users should avoid opening files from untrusted sources.
Adobe InDesign 18.5.1 (or later) for version 18.x; Adobe InDesign 17.4.3 (or later) for version 17.x
- 1. Open Adobe Creative Cloud desktop application or Adobe InDesign
- 2. Navigate to the Updates section or check for available updates
- 3. Locate Adobe InDesign in the available updates
- 4. Update to version 18.5.1 or later for InDesign 18.x users
- 5. Update to version 17.4.3 or later for InDesign 17.x users
- 6. Restart InDesign after the update completes
- 7. Verify the installed version by going to Help > About Adobe InDesign
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 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-2023-44341 — 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-2023-44341 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
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