Description

Illustrator is affected by an out-of-bounds read vulnerability that could lead to disclosure of sensitive memory. An attacker could leverage this vulnerability to disclose sensitive information. 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": "5.5",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-25T18:18:01.173Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-25T18:18:01.173Z",
  "executiveSummary": "Adobe Illustrator is susceptible to an out-of-bounds (OOB) read vulnerability that facilitates the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive memory contents.\nThis vulnerability stems from improper bounds checking when processing specifically crafted file formats, potentially allowing an attacker to access memory segments outside the intended buffer.\nThe primary impact involves the exposure of sensitive information, which could range from application-specific data to residual system memory contents, depending on the memory layout and the nature of the information leaked.\nThe vulnerability is categorized as a memory safety issue, specifically an out-of-bounds read, and poses a risk to confidentiality.\nSuccessful exploitation requires user interaction; a victim must be enticed to open a malicious file crafted by an attacker.\nNo specific authentication or escalated privileges are required to trigger this vulnerability, though the attacker must successfully deliver the malicious file to the target user.\nOnce the malicious file is processed by the vulnerable component of Illustrator, the application may inadvertently leak portions of its process memory to the attacker, potentially aiding in further exploitation vectors.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability is identified as an out-of-bounds read error, which occurs during the parsing of malformed files within Adobe Illustrator. This security flaw manifests when the application attempts to read data beyond the allocated buffer boundaries due to insufficient validation of input lengths or indexing offsets provided within the file structure.\nThe root cause lies in the application's parsing logic, where specific fields within the malicious file are used to determine memory access offsets without adequate boundary verification. When the parser processes these fields, it calculates an address for a memory read operation that falls outside the bounds of the allocated memory object. Consequently, the application reads adjacent memory rather than the intended data structure.\nThe attack flow proceeds as follows: First, an attacker constructs a malicious file containing specific structural malformations designed to trigger the out-of-bounds read during the parsing phase. Second, the attacker distributes this file to a target user via email, web download, or other common delivery vectors. Third, upon opening the file within the affected version of Adobe Illustrator, the application's parsing engine executes the logic that performs the unauthorized read. Finally, the application may inadvertently display the contents of the memory read or include them in an output operation, allowing the attacker to capture sensitive data previously held in the process memory space.\nThis vulnerability does not require the attacker to have pre-existing authentication or elevated privileges on the host system. It operates entirely within the context of the user running the Illustrator application. The exposure is local to the victim's environment, but because the flaw is triggered by the inherent functionality of the software when processing standard-looking file formats, it represents a significant security risk for users who handle untrusted documents.\nThe post-exploitation impact includes the potential leakage of sensitive heap or stack data. In complex exploitation scenarios, an out-of-bounds read can be used to bypass memory randomization techniques or extract cryptographic keys, configuration tokens, or user data if those reside in proximity to the vulnerable buffer. By reading contiguous memory, an attacker might reconstruct sensitive data structures or gain insights into the memory layout of the application, significantly lowering the barrier for subsequent, more severe attacks, such as arbitrary code execution, although the primary impact here is defined as information disclosure."
}