Cyber Posture

CVE-2025-27169

High

Published: 11 March 2025

Published
11 March 2025
Modified
28 April 2025
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0008 23.4th percentile
Risk Priority 16 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-27169 is a high-severity Out-of-bounds Write (CWE-787) vulnerability in Adobe Illustrator. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203); ranked at the 23.4th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 RA-5 (Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning) and SI-16 (Memory Protection).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203) and 1 other technique. What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.
Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

prevent

Directly addresses the vulnerability by requiring organizations to identify, prioritize, and remediate flaws like this out-of-bounds write in affected Adobe Illustrator versions via vendor patches.

prevent

Provides memory protection mechanisms such as address space layout randomization and data execution prevention that mitigate exploitation of out-of-bounds write vulnerabilities leading to arbitrary code execution.

detect

Enables vulnerability scanning to identify systems running vulnerable Adobe Illustrator versions (29.2.1, 28.7.4, and earlier), triggering remediation.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1204.002 Malicious File Execution
An adversary may rely upon a user opening a malicious file in order to gain execution.
Why these techniques?

Out-of-bounds write enables arbitrary code execution via malicious file opened by user, directly mapping to client-side exploitation (T1203) and user execution with malicious file (T1204.002).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

NVD Description

Illustrator versions 29.2.1, 28.7.4 and earlier are affected by an out-of-bounds write 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…

more

a malicious file.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-27169 is an out-of-bounds write vulnerability (CWE-787) affecting Adobe Illustrator versions 29.2.1, 28.7.4, and earlier. Published on 2025-03-11T18:15:35.077, it carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and could result in arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user.

Exploitation requires user interaction, as a victim must open a malicious file. An attacker needs only local access with no privileges and can leverage the low-complexity attack to achieve high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability within the unchanged security scope.

Adobe's security advisory APSB25-17 at https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/illustrator/apsb25-17.html provides details on mitigation and available patches.

Details

CWE(s)

Affected Products

adobe
illustrator
28.0 — 28.7.5 · 29.0 — 29.3

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References