Substance 3d DesignerApplication · Adobe

CVE-2023-48638

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-12-13
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 13.0.0 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 Substance 3D Designer versions 13.0.0 (and earlier) and 13.1.0 (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 · moderate confidence

Adobe Substance 3D Designer versions 13.0.0 and earlier suffer from an out-of-bounds read vulnerability that allows reading memory beyond allocated buffers. This can expose sensitive memory contents including pointers and addresses that may be used to defeat ASLR. Exploitation requires a victim to open a specially crafted malicious file.

MitigationUpdate Adobe Substance 3D Designer to a version newer than 13.1.0 when a patch is released by Adobe. Avoid opening files from untrusted sources.

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
Substance 3d DesignerApplication
Affected:<= 13.0.0

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. Identify Adobe Substance 3D Designer version
    Open Adobe Substance 3D Designer and go to Help > About Adobe Substance 3D Designer to view the exact version number, or check the version in Windows Add/Remove Programs or macOS Applications folder
    Affected if The displayed version is 13.0.0 or any version number lower than 13.0.0
  2. Compare version against affected range
    Review the version number identified in step 1. The affected range per the CVE is any version <= 13.0.0
    Affected if The installed version is 13.0.0 or earlier (for example 12.x.x, 11.x.x, etc.)
  3. Verify file parsing is in use
    The vulnerability triggers when the application opens and parses files. Confirm the software is used to open .sbs, .sbsar, or other Substance files from external sources
    Affected if The software is used to open files, particularly from untrusted sources, and the version is <= 13.0.0

If Adobe Substance 3D Designer version 13.0.0 or earlier is installed and used to open files, the environment is affected by CVE-2023-48638.

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 13.0.0
Interim mitigation

Update Adobe Substance 3D Designer to a version newer than 13.1.0 when a patch is released by Adobe. Avoid opening files from untrusted sources.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Adobe Substance 3D Designer version 13.1.1 or later (latest available version)

  1. 1. Verify your current Adobe Substance 3D Designer version by launching the application and navigating to Help > About Adobe Substance 3D Designer
  2. 2. Download the latest version of Adobe Substance 3D Designer from the official Adobe website at https://www.adobe.com/products/substance3d-designer.html
  3. 3. Uninstall the current version of Adobe Substance 3D Designer through the system control panel
  4. 4. Install the downloaded latest version by running the installer and following the on-screen prompts
  5. 5. After installation, launch the application and confirm the version number reflects the updated release
  6. 6. Avoid opening untrusted or unsolicited files, particularly those from unknown sources, as exploitation requires user interaction
Caveat Review Adobe's release notes for your version for any feature changes or workflow adjustments that may affect existing projects

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

Fix this in Substance 3d Designer Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $860
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,376.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-48638 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-48638 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