CVE-2025-43555 is a high-severity integer underflow vulnerability (CWE-191) affecting Adobe Animate versions 24.0.8, 23.0.11, and earlier. The flaw arises from improper handling of integer values that can wrap around or underflow during internal calculations. This vulnerability can be triggered when a user opens a specially crafted malicious file in Adobe Animate, leading to arbitrary code execution within the context of the current user. The vulnerability requires user interaction, specifically opening a malicious file, and does not require prior authentication or elevated privileges. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 7.8, reflecting a high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, with low attack complexity and no privileges required. Exploitation could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code, potentially leading to data theft, system compromise, or further malware deployment. Although no known exploits are currently reported in the wild, the vulnerability’s nature and impact make it a significant risk, especially for environments where Adobe Animate is used for content creation or multimedia development. The lack of available patches at the time of reporting increases the urgency for mitigation and monitoring.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a considerable risk, particularly for creative industries, media companies, advertising agencies, and educational institutions that rely on Adobe Animate for multimedia content creation. Successful exploitation could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive project files, intellectual property theft, and potential lateral movement within corporate networks if attackers leverage the initial foothold. The arbitrary code execution capability could also facilitate deployment of ransomware or spyware, impacting business continuity and data privacy compliance obligations under regulations such as GDPR. Given the user interaction requirement, phishing or social engineering campaigns could be used to trick employees into opening malicious files, increasing the risk of targeted attacks. The impact extends beyond confidentiality to include integrity and availability of systems, potentially disrupting creative workflows and causing operational downtime.

Organizations should implement a multi-layered defense strategy: 1) Educate users about the risks of opening files from untrusted sources and implement strict policies on handling unsolicited multimedia files. 2) Employ email and web filtering solutions to detect and block malicious attachments or links that could deliver crafted Adobe Animate files. 3) Use application whitelisting and sandboxing techniques to restrict Adobe Animate’s ability to execute unauthorized code or access sensitive system resources. 4) Monitor systems for unusual behavior indicative of exploitation attempts, including unexpected process launches or network communications originating from Adobe Animate. 5) Maintain up-to-date backups of critical data to enable recovery in case of compromise. 6) Stay alert for official patches or updates from Adobe and apply them promptly once available. 7) Consider deploying endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools capable of identifying exploitation patterns related to integer underflow vulnerabilities. 8) Limit user privileges where possible to reduce the impact of code execution within user context.