CVE-2020-9709Adobe Photoshop improper privilege management
CVE-2020-9709 is a improper privilege management in Adobe Photoshop, rated high (8.8 on CVSS 3.1).
Why this priority: High severity, with no exploitation signal yet.
Published · Updated · NVD status: Awaiting Analysis
What it is
The software lets a user or process gain privileges it should not have.
How it is reached
An attacker can exploit it over the network, without an account, but someone has to act first, such as opening a file or following a link.
What an attacker gains
A successful attack can read the data it protects, change data or behaviour and take it offline. In practice, this kind of flaw lets an attacker reach data or actions their role should not allow.
Is it being exploited?
There is no public report of exploitation yet. EPSS estimates a 0.29% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 22% of scored CVEs.
What to do
- No fixed version is listed yet. Find every place Adobe Photoshop runs, watch the references for a fix, and plan a replacement if it is no longer supported.
- While there is no fix, keep it off the internet or behind a VPN, allowlist or authenticating proxy.
- Warn the people who use it, and filter files and links on the way in.
Description from NVD
Adobe Photoshop versions Photoshop CC 2019, and Photoshop 2020 have a security bypass vulnerability. Successful exploitation could lead to privilege escalation.
What this means for your architecture.
A CVE names a product. Whether it matters depends on where that product sits in your systems: what reaches it, which trust boundary it guards and what it can reach once compromised. Veriom maps your components, their relationships and your trust boundaries from your code, cloud and delivery evidence, so you can see where a component like this sits. The radar itself does not look at your systems.
Components it touches
- Permission checks in APIs and admin surfaces. The flaw sits between one role or tenant and another.
- Multi-tenant services. The flaw sits between one role or tenant and another.
Trust boundaries in play
- Internet-facing entry points. No account is needed. Any instance reachable from outside your perimeter, through a load balancer, gateway, VPN or exposed admin port, is in scope.
- People who open files and links. Mail, chat and browsers are the delivery path.
- Between one role or tenant and another. An attacker who crosses it can reach data or actions their role should not allow.
Questions to answer about your own systems
- Where does Adobe Photoshop run in your systems, and at which version?
- Which of those instances can be reached from the internet or partner networks?
- What can it reach once compromised: which data stores, secrets and services?
Sources
- CVE records and CVSS scores from the NVD CVE API. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
- Exploitation status from CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
- Exploit likelihood from FIRST’s Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), refreshed daily.
- Explanations are written by Veriom from fixed templates over each record’s data, not by a person reviewing each CVE. Descriptions are quoted from the records as published.