IndesignApplication · Adobe

CVE-2024-49529

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-11-21
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 19.5.1 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 19.0, 20.0 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 · high confidence

Adobe InDesign Desktop versions 19.0, 20.0 and earlier contain an out-of-bounds read vulnerability. When a user opens a maliciously crafted file, the application reads memory beyond allocated buffers, potentially exposing sensitive memory contents and enabling ASLR bypass.

MitigationUpdate InDesign to the latest patched version provided by Adobe. Until patched, advise users not to open untrusted InDesign 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:< 19.5.1= 20.0

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 installed InDesign version
    Locate the InDesign application on your system. On Windows, right-click InDesign.exe and select Properties > Details > File Version. On Mac, right-click InDesign.app and select Get Info > General Information > Version.
    Affected if The version shown is 19.0, 19.0.0 through 19.5.0, or exactly 20.0
  2. Verify exact version number
    Compare the full version string (for example, 19.5.0.060 or 20.0.0.156) against the affected ranges. Adobe InDesign 19.5.1 and later are NOT affected.
    Affected if The version is less than 19.5.1 (such as 19.5.0, 19.4, 19.3, 19.2, 19.1, or 19.0) or is exactly 20.0
  3. Confirm file handling exposure
    Determine whether InDesign is configured to automatically open files from external or untrusted sources, such as through drag-and-drop, file associations, or automated scripts.
    Affected if Users or automated processes can open InDesign files from untrusted sources without manual review or confirmation dialogs
  4. Review user privileges and execution context
    Check whether InDesign runs with elevated privileges or has access to sensitive data that could be exposed through the out-of-bounds read vulnerability.
    Affected if InDesign runs with administrator or system-level privileges, or has access to files containing sensitive information

You are affected if InDesign Desktop version is 19.0 through 19.5.0 or exactly 20.0, and users in your environment can open InDesign files from untrusted or external sources.

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 19.5.1 or later
Fixed in 19.5.1
Interim mitigation

Update InDesign to the latest patched version provided by Adobe. Until patched, advise users not to open untrusted InDesign files from unknown sources.

Recommended fix High confidence

Adobe InDesign 19.5.1 or later

  1. Check current InDesign version by opening the application and navigating to Help > About InDesign
  2. Download Adobe InDesign version 19.5.1 or later from the official Adobe website (helpx.adobe.com)
  3. Close all running instances of InDesign
  4. Run the Adobe update installer or installer downloaded from Adobe
  5. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the installation
  6. Restart InDesign and verify the version shows 19.5.1 or later via Help > About InDesign

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
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $910
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,456.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-49529 — 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-2024-49529 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