Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-27198

Memory Safety in Adobe Photoshop 25.0 – 25.12.2

Published
08 April 2025
Modified
05 May 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0039 32th percentile
Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-27198 is a high-severity Heap-based Buffer Overflow (CWE-122) vulnerability in Adobe Photoshop. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, ranked at the 32th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SI-16 (Memory Protection) and AC-6 (Least Privilege) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Photoshop Desktop versions 25.12.1, 26.4.1 and earlier are 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…

more

must open a malicious file.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-61819Same product: Adobe Photoshop
CVE-2023-44330Same product: Adobe Photoshop
CVE-2023-21575Same product: Adobe Photoshop
CVE-2023-21576Same product: Adobe Photoshop
CVE-2024-43756Same product: Adobe Photoshop
CVE-2023-25868Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-24453Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2026-21357Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-45139Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2023-25872Same product: Apple Macos

Affected Assets

adobe
photoshop
25.0 — 25.12.2 · 26.0 — 26.5

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SI-16 Memory Protection
  • SI-10 Information Input Validation
  • AC-6 Least Privilege
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.4.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Memory-protection mechanisms (ASLR, DEP, guard pages) directly block exploitation of the heap buffer overflow described in CVE-2025-27198.

prevent

Strict validation of image-file input can reject the malformed data that triggers the out-of-bounds write before the overflow occurs.

prevent

Running Photoshop under least-privilege reduces the impact of arbitrary code execution to only the rights of the current user.

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 full match
prevents

Secure-development practices directly require bounds checking and safe memory handling that prevent heap overflows.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover heap-overflow flaws but does not prevent their introduction in code.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Timely patching removes known heap-overflow instances after they exist.

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.

detects

Security testing in development and acceptance can detect heap overflows before release.

prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates practices that reduce the likelihood of introducing heap overflows.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify bounds-checking and safe memory APIs that mitigate heap overflows.

prevents

Secure architecture and engineering principles include memory-safety and input-validation controls that address heap overflows.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly prescribe techniques (safe functions, bounds checks) that prevent heap-based buffer overflows.

prevents

Change management can enforce review gates that catch unsafe memory operations before deployment.

References