dbcve.org
IllustratorApplication · Adobe

CVE-2025-21159

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-02-11
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 28.7.4 / 29.2.1 or later.
See remediation →
81/100
Remediation priority · High
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
Illustrator versions 29.1, 28.7.3 and earlier are affected by a Use After Free vulnerability that could result in arbitrary code execution 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 · high confidence

Adobe Illustrator versions 29.1, 28.7.3 and earlier contain a Use After Free vulnerability. This memory corruption flaw allows an attacker to manipulate freed memory and potentially execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. Exploitation requires the victim to open a specially crafted malicious file.

MitigationUpdate Adobe Illustrator to version 29.2 or later (or the latest version available from Adobe). Avoid opening untrusted .AI or other design files from unknown sources until the update is applied.

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
IllustratorApplication
Affected:>= 28.0, < 28.7.4>= 29.0, < 29.2.1

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
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/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. Verify Adobe Illustrator is installed
    Check for Adobe Illustrator in the system: On Windows, look in Program Files or check Registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe. On macOS, check /Applications for Adobe Illustrator.app
    Affected if Adobe Illustrator is present on the system
  2. Determine installed Adobe Illustrator version
    Open Adobe Illustrator and go to Help > About, or on Windows run: reg query "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Illustrator" /v Version (or similar version key). On macOS, right-click Adobe Illustrator.app > Get Info to see version
    Affected if Unable to determine the version from the application or registry
  3. Compare version against affected ranges
    Compare your installed version number to these ranges: 28.0 through 28.7.3 (all versions in this range), or 29.0 through 29.2.0 (all versions in this range)
    Affected if Installed version falls within >= 28.0 and < 28.7.4, OR >= 29.0 and < 29.2.1
  4. Identify file-opening usage pattern
    Assess whether users in the environment routinely open .AI or other design files from untrusted or external sources (email attachments, downloads from unknown sites)
    Affected if Users open .AI files from untrusted sources (this is required for exploitation)

If Adobe Illustrator version is 28.0 through 28.7.3 or 29.0 through 29.2.0 and users open .AI files from untrusted sources, the environment is affected by this Use After Free vulnerability.

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 28.7.4 / 29.2.1 or later
Fixed in 28.7.429.2.1
Interim mitigation

Update Adobe Illustrator to version 29.2 or later (or the latest version available from Adobe). Avoid opening untrusted .AI or other design files from unknown sources until the update is applied.

Recommended fix High confidence

Illustrator 28.7.4 or later for 28.x users; Illustrator 29.2.1 or later for 29.x users

  1. Open Adobe Creative Cloud desktop application or check for updates within Illustrator via Help > Check for Updates
  2. If using Illustrator version 28.x, upgrade to version 28.7.4 or later
  3. If using Illustrator version 29.x, upgrade to version 29.2.1 or later
  4. Verify the installed version by going to Help > About Adobe Illustrator and confirming the version number
  5. After upgrading, ensure the update is applied by restarting Illustrator
Caveat Minor - Adobe updates typically preserve user preferences and settings; some legacy plugin compatibility may require verification

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

Fix this in Illustrator Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,040
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,664.

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-2025-21159 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