IndesignApplication · Adobe

CVE-2024-39395

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-08-14
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 18.5.3 / 19.5 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
InDesign Desktop versions ID19.4, ID18.5.2 and earlier are affected by a NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability that could lead to an application denial-of-service (DoS). An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to crash the application, resulting in a DoS condition. 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

A NULL pointer dereference vulnerability in Adobe InDesign Desktop versions ID19.4, ID18.5.2 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause application crashes via specially crafted malicious files that require user interaction to open.

MitigationApply vendor patches from Adobe for affected InDesign versions and educate users to avoid opening untrusted .indd files from unknown 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
IndesignApplication
Affected:< 18.5.3>= 19.0, < 19.5

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
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 checks

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

  1. Identify installed Adobe InDesign version on Windows
    Open Windows Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\InDesign\ (or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Adobe\InDesign for 64-bit). Look for the "Version" or "ProductVersion" value under the installed instance folder.
    Affected if The version value is less than 18.5.3 (for 18.x versions) OR is 19.0 through 19.4 (>= 19.0 and < 19.5)
  2. Identify installed Adobe InDesign version on macOS
    Open Finder, navigate to /Applications/Adobe InDesign [version], right-click the Adobe InDesign app, select Get Info, and read the Version number displayed.
    Affected if The version number is less than 18.5.3 (for 18.x versions) OR is 19.0 through 19.4 (>= 19.0 and < 19.5)
  3. Check InDesign version via help menu
    Launch Adobe InDesign, click Help menu, select About Adobe InDesign. The version and build number are displayed in the dialog window.
    Affected if The displayed version is in the range < 18.5.3 or >= 19.0 but < 19.5

A user is affected if their installed Adobe InDesign Desktop version is either 18.x versions before 18.5.3, or versions 19.0 through 19.4, and they open untrusted .indd files.

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 18.5.3 / 19.5 or later
Fixed in 18.5.319.5
Interim mitigation

Apply vendor patches from Adobe for affected InDesign versions and educate users to avoid opening untrusted .indd files from unknown sources.

Recommended fix High confidence

InDesign 18.5.3 or later; InDesign 19.5 or later (depending on which major version line is in use)

  1. 1. Identify the currently installed Adobe InDesign version by opening InDesign and going to Help > About InDesign
  2. 2. If running version 18.x (such as 18.5.2 or earlier), upgrade to version 18.5.3 or later
  3. 3. If running version 19.x (such as 19.0-19.4), upgrade to version 19.5 or later
  4. 4. Download the updated version from the official Adobe website at helpx.adobe.com or through the Adobe Creative Cloud desktop application
  5. 5. Run the installer and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the upgrade
  6. 6. After installation, verify the new version by checking Help > About InDesign to confirm the fix is applied
Caveat Standard upgrade risks apply - ensure compatible system requirements and back up custom workspaces/presets before upgrading

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

Fix this in Indesign Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,696.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
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-2024-39395 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