Overview
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system has identified a critical vulnerability in InDesign Desktop, a popular design software, that could potentially lead to arbitrary code execution. This vulnerability, known as CVE-2025-43592, affects versions 19.5.3 and earlier of the software and has a significant severity score of 7.8 as per the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). The arbitrary code execution can occur in the context of the current user, which could potentially result in a system compromise or data leakage.
The discovery of this vulnerability underscores the importance of continuous vigilance and robust cybersecurity measures. The vulnerability requires user interaction to exploit, necessitating users to open a malicious file, thus increasing the risk for unsuspecting victims.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-43592
Severity: Critical (7.8 CVSS score)
Attack Vector: Local
Privileges Required: User
User Interaction: Required
Impact: Potential system compromise and data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
InDesign Desktop | 19.5.3 and earlier
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability resides in the handling of pointer initialization within InDesign Desktop. An attacker can craft a malicious file that, when opened in InDesign Desktop, triggers the access of uninitialized pointer. This can result in arbitrary code execution in the context of the currently logged-in user. Depending on the privileges of this user, this might lead to a full system compromise or sensitive data leakage.
Conceptual Example Code
While the specifics of the exploit are not disclosed for security reasons, a conceptual example of the vulnerability might involve crafting a file that exploits the faulty pointer initialization. Here is a pseudocode representation of this:
function malicious_file() {
// uninitialized pointer
var ptr;
// craft payload to exploit uninitialized pointer
var payload = craft_payload(ptr);
// use payload to execute arbitrary code
execute_code(payload);
}This pseudocode illustrates the process of crafting a payload that exploits the uninitialized pointer, leading to arbitrary code execution. Real-world exploit would be more complex and specific to the internals of the InDesign Desktop software.