Description

A maliciously crafted BMP file, when parsed through certain Autodesk products, can force a Untrusted Pointer Dereference vulnerability. A malicious actor can leverage this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current process.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.8",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-06T22:18:32.837Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-06T22:18:32.837Z",
  "executiveSummary": "An untrusted pointer dereference vulnerability exists within certain Autodesk products when parsing maliciously crafted BMP image files. This critical security flaw allows a malicious actor to achieve arbitrary code execution within the security context of the currently running process. The risk implications are severe, as successful exploitation could lead to total system compromise, unauthorized data access, or lateral movement depending on the privileges of the victim executing the application. Attacker capabilities include full control over the application thread upon successful parsing of the malicious payload. Exploitation specifically requires a user to open or process a specially crafted BMP file provided by the attacker, thereby necessitating some form of social engineering or local file placement to deliver the malicious input vector. Affected systems encompass specific Autodesk product installations lacking the necessary hardening or patch updates to safely handle malformed bitmap structures during image parsing operations.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability stems from insecure memory management and inadequate input validation during the parsing of BMP image files within the affected Autodesk products. Specifically, the root cause is an untrusted pointer dereference, where the application reads or uses a pointer value derived from untrusted file input without performing proper bounds checking, validation, or sanitization to ensure the pointer references a valid and expected memory location.\nThe attack flow begins when a user is induced to open or import a maliciously crafted BMP file using a vulnerable Autodesk product. As the application's image parsing engine processes the structural headers and pixel data of the bitmap file, it encounters manipulated offset values or corrupted metadata designed to overwrite or supply an arbitrary memory address into a pointer variable.\nDuring the subsequent parsing operations, the vulnerable component attempts to dereference this manipulated pointer. Because the pointer points to an arbitrary or controlled location in memory rather than a valid object or buffer, the application execution flow is hijacked. A sophisticated attacker can craft the malicious BMP file such that the dereferenced pointer directs execution to shellcode embedded within the payload or leverages existing memory structures via Return-Oriented Programming (ROP) chains.\nThis vulnerability does not inherently require authentication, as the attack vector relies on local file processing, but it requires the target user to interact with the malicious file. No specific privilege requirements are initially necessary for the attacker beyond the ability to deliver the malicious BMP file to the victim. The network exposure is generally local, mediated via email attachments, file shares, or web downloads that result in local file parsing.\nThe post-exploitation impact includes the execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the affected Autodesk product. This can facilitate persistence, installation of malware, data exfiltration, or further compromise of the underlying operating system environment."
}