{"id":83115,"date":"2025-10-17T12:45:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T12:45:04","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-29T16:22:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T22:22:06","slug":"cve-2025-54226-use-after-free-vulnerability-in-indesign-desktop-leads-to-arbitrary-code-execution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-54226-use-after-free-vulnerability-in-indesign-desktop-leads-to-arbitrary-code-execution\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-54226: Use After Free Vulnerability in InDesign Desktop Leads to Arbitrary Code Execution<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The cybersecurity landscape is continuously evolving with new vulnerabilities being identified regularly. One such recently discovered vulnerability is the CVE-2025-54226, affecting specific versions of InDesign Desktop. As a software widely used for publishing design and layout, InDesign Desktop&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-52930-high-risk-memory-corruption-vulnerability-in-sail-image-decoding-library\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"90851\">vulnerability poses a significant risk<\/a> to individuals and organizations alike. This vulnerability, if exploited, can lead to arbitrary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-58045-critical-remote-code-execution-vulnerability-in-dataease\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"90357\">code execution<\/a> in the context of the current user, resulting in potential system compromise or data leakage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-54226<br \/>\nSeverity: High (7.8 CVSS v3)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Local<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: None<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: Arbitrary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-59340-jinjava-template-engine-vulnerability-leading-to-potential-remote-code-execution\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"90385\">code execution potentially leading<\/a> to system compromise or data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-3605132390\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 700px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 8px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 40px; height: 40px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    A new way to communicate\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 12px;\">\r\n    Ameeba Chat is built on encrypted identity, not personal profiles.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 16px;\">\r\n    Message, call, share files, and coordinate with identities kept separate.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\r\n    <li>\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Ameeba Chat authenticates access<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Aliases and categories<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, and files<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Secure notes for sensitive information<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\r\n    Private communication, rethought.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Download Ameeba Chat<\/a>\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Learn More<\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>InDesign Desktop | 20.4<br \/>\nInDesign Desktop | 19.5.4<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The CVE-2025-54226 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-30385-critical-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-windows-common-log-file-system-driver\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"91842\">vulnerability leverages a common<\/a> programming error known as Use After Free. In this scenario, the InDesign Desktop application attempts to reference memory after it has been freed or deleted. This can lead to a range of adverse outcomes, including application crashes, data corruption, or, in this case, arbitrary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2023-49565-remote-code-execution-vulnerability-in-cbis-manager-podman-container\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"90443\">code execution<\/a>. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must trick a user into opening a malicious file, which then exploits the Use After Free <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-8565-unauthorized-access-and-arbitrary-plugin-installation-vulnerability-in-wp-legal-pages-wordpress-plugin\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"90323\">vulnerability to execute arbitrary<\/a> code within the context of the user&#8217;s session.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-3165923784\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Given the nature of the vulnerability, it&#8217;s not feasible to provide a HTTP request or shell command. However, the conceptual pseudocode below can give an idea of how this vulnerability might be exploited:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">1. Create malicious_file.indd containing exploit code\n2. Victim opens malicious_file.indd with affected InDesign Desktop version\n3. Exploit code triggers Use After Free vulnerability\n4. Arbitrary code executes within victim&#039;s user context<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>Please note that this is a simplistic representation and actual exploit development would require deep understanding of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-7848-memory-corruption-vulnerability-in-ni-labview-potentially-leading-to-arbitrary-code-execution\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"90453\">memory management and the specific workings of the vulnerable<\/a> application.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview The cybersecurity landscape is continuously evolving with new vulnerabilities being identified regularly. One such recently discovered vulnerability is the CVE-2025-54226, affecting specific versions of InDesign Desktop. As a software widely used for publishing design and layout, InDesign Desktop&#8217;s vulnerability poses a significant risk to individuals and organizations alike. This vulnerability, if exploited, can lead [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[80],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-83115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","attack_vector-rce"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83115"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85019,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83115\/revisions\/85019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83115"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=83115"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=83115"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=83115"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=83115"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=83115"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=83115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}