Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-21593

Memory Safety in Adobe Indesign 17.0 – 17.4

Memory Safety
Published
17 February 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0034 27th percentile
Risk Priority 44 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-21593 is a medium-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Adobe Indesign. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked at the 27th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A10:2025 Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Adobe InDesign versions ID18.1 (and earlier) and ID17.4 (and earlier) are affected by a NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker could leverage this vulnerability to achieve an application denial-of-service in the context of the current user. Exploitation of this…

more

issue requires user interaction in that a victim must open a malicious file.

CWE(s)
CWE-476

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
attack.mitre.org →
T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
attack.mitre.org →
T1489 Service Stop Impact
Adversaries may stop or disable services on a system to render those services unavailable to legitimate users.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-34703Same product: Adobe Indesign
CVE-2024-41866Same product: Adobe Indesign
CVE-2025-30321Same product: Adobe Indesign
CVE-2025-30319Same product: Adobe Indesign
CVE-2023-44341Same product: Adobe Indesign
CVE-2025-21125Same product: Adobe Indesign
CVE-2023-47076Same product: Adobe Indesign
CVE-2024-41836Same product: Adobe Indesign
CVE-2023-44347Same product: Adobe Indesign
CVE-2025-27176Same product: Adobe Indesign

Affected Assets

adobe
indesign
18.0, 18.1 · 17.0 — 17.4

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.

References