Description

Substance3D - Designer is affected by a Heap-based Buffer Overflow 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.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.8",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-25T18:17:54.947Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-25T18:17:54.947Z",
  "executiveSummary": "Substance3D Designer is susceptible to a critical Heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability. This memory corruption flaw allows for potential arbitrary code execution within the security context of the logged-in user. The vulnerability is triggered when the application processes a specially crafted, malicious file, necessitating user interaction to achieve successful exploitation. If exploited, an attacker could gain the ability to execute unauthorized code on the host system, leading to full system compromise or data exfiltration. The risk is significant given the application's reliance on parsing complex file formats, which provides a large attack surface for malformed inputs. No specific authentication is required for exploitation; however, the attacker must successfully deliver the malicious file to the target user and entice them to open it within the affected software environment.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability resides within the parsing engine of Substance3D Designer responsible for interpreting external file formats. A Heap-based Buffer Overflow occurs when the application fails to perform adequate bounds checking while allocating or writing data to a heap-allocated buffer. During the processing of an input file, an oversized or malformed data structure within the file causes the application to write beyond the intended boundaries of the allocated memory heap.\nThe root cause is likely an integer overflow or an incorrect size calculation during the deserialization or parsing of specific file headers or binary data segments. When the application attempts to copy the attacker-supplied data into a heap buffer, the lack of length verification results in the overwriting of adjacent heap chunks or heap metadata structures. By precisely controlling the contents of the overflow, an attacker can overwrite critical pointers, such as function pointers or vtable pointers, effectively hijacking the application's control flow.\nThe attack flow begins when a user is convinced to open a malicious file crafted by an attacker. Upon opening, the vulnerable parsing function reads the file content and initiates the flawed memory copy process. The overflow corrupts the heap, allowing the attacker to redirect the instruction pointer (EIP/RIP) to execute arbitrary shellcode or perform a Return-Oriented Programming (ROP) chain. Because the process executes in the context of the current user, the payload inherits all local permissions associated with that user session.\nThis vulnerability does not require prior authentication, as the attack vector is file-based and relies on local user interaction. There is no requirement for network exposure, although the malicious file may be delivered via email, web download, or other common attack vectors. The post-exploitation impact is severe, potentially allowing for the installation of persistent backdoors, data theft, or lateral movement within the local network, depending on the victim's privileges and system hardening configuration."
}