CVE Alert: CVE-2025-54279 – Adobe – Animate

Risk verdict

High risk due to a Use After Free flaw enabling arbitrary code execution in the context of the current user when a malicious file is opened; no active exploitation is observed yet, but impact remains significant.

Why this matters

Successful exploitation would permit code execution with the attacker’s privileges, potentially leading to data exposure, persistence, or further compromise of the host. Given the local vector and required user interaction, attackers will target human factors to deliver the malicious file.

Most likely attack path

Attacker prepares a crafted file that triggers a use-after-free condition when processed by the application; the user opens the file, providing the necessary interaction. The exploit is local and requires no privileges, but execution occurs in the user context with high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact. Scope remains unchanged, so lateral movement would depend on subsequent footholds or user rights.

Who is most exposed

Desktop/workstation users in environments where content authors, designers, or publishers routinely open rich media files from external sources or shared drives. Organisations with lax file-type handling or open-by-default policies are especially at risk.

Detection ideas

• Monitor for crashes or memory errors occurring soon after opening a file from an untrusted source.
• Look for anomalous process trees or unexpected child processes spawned by the application.
• Correlate file-open events with crash dumps or heap-corruption indicators.
• Alert on repeated failed or unusual memory access patterns in the application.
• Inspect crash reports for use-after-free signatures or related heap errors.

Mitigation and prioritisation

• Apply vendor patch to the latest supported version; validate in staging before broad rollout.
• Enable strict file-type controls and update allow-lists to block untrusted file sources.
• Enforce least-privilege on user accounts and implement application allow-listing.
• Use sandboxing or restricted execution environments for file handling and media processing.
• Ensure robust backups and tested restoration processes; update incident response playbooks.