Flaw in Adobe Photoshop could compromise systems

A popular Adobe image-editing program contains a major vulnerability for which public exploit code is available, researchers said today.

The flaw, rated "highly critical" by tracking firm Secunia, is caused by the improper processing of bitmap files in Adobe Photoshop and can lead to a stack-based buffer overflow. If successful, attackers can launch arbitrary code that could compromise a user's system by duping users into opening a malicious file.

While public code has been posted by a researcher named Marsu, there are no reports of active exploits.

The bug resides in Photoshop CS2 and CS3, according to a Secunia advisory. As users await a patch, experts recommend not opening untrusted bitmap files, with extensions .bmp, .dib and .rle.

An Adobe spokesperson could not be reached for comment.