CVE-2026-27283
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 · uneditedInDesign Desktop versions 20.5.2, 21.2 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 confidenceInDesign Desktop versions 20.5.2, 21.2 and earlier contain a Use After Free vulnerability where the application continues to use a memory pointer after it has been freed. This memory corruption can be leveraged by an attacker to achieve arbitrary code execution when a victim opens a specially crafted malicious InDesign 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< 20.5.3>= 21.0, < 21.3CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check installed InDesign versionOpen InDesign and navigate to Help > About Adobe InDesign, or on Windows check the installed version via Programs and Features, or on macOS check via Finder in Applications folderAffected if version is 20.5.2, 21.2, or any version below 20.5.3, or between 21.0 and 21.2 (inclusive)
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Identify if InDesign is running a vulnerable releaseCompare your installed version number against the affected ranges: versions before 20.5.3 and versions 21.0 through 21.2 are vulnerableAffected if installed version falls within < 20.5.3 or >= 21.0 and < 21.3
You are affected if InDesign Desktop version 20.5.2, 21.2, or any version between 20.5.0-20.5.2 or 21.0-21.2 is installed on your system.
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 · scoped20.5.321.3
Update InDesign to the latest patched version provided by Adobe. Avoid opening InDesign files from untrusted or unknown sources until the patch is applied.
InDesign 20.5.3 for 20.x branch; InDesign 21.3 or later for 21.x branch
- Close any running instances of Adobe InDesign
- Back up any important InDesign documents and workspace settings
- Navigate to the Adobe InDesign download page or use Adobe Creative Cloud desktop application
- Download InDesign version 20.5.3 (if on the 20.x branch) or version 21.3 or later (if on the 21.x branch)
- Run the installer and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the installation
- Restart your computer after installation completes
- Launch InDesign and verify the version by going to Help > About InDesign to confirm the installed version
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,904.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-27283 — 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-2026-27283 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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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.
- 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