CVE-2008-3134 in GraphicsMagick
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple unspecified vulnerabilities in GraphicsMagick before 1.2.4 allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash, infinite loop, or memory consumption) via (a) unspecified vectors in the (1) AVI, (2) AVS, (3) DCM, (4) EPT, (5) FITS, (6) MTV, (7) PALM, (8) RLA, and (9) TGA decoder readers; and (b) the GetImageCharacteristics function in magick/image.c, as reachable from a crafted (10) PNG, (11) JPEG, (12) BMP, or (13) TIFF file.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/17/2019
GraphicsMagick version 1.2.4 and earlier contained multiple unspecified vulnerabilities that could be exploited by remote attackers to induce denial of service conditions through various image format decoders. These vulnerabilities affected multiple image format readers including AVI, AVS, DCM, EPT, FITS, MTV, PALM, RLA, and TGA decoders, creating a broad attack surface that could be leveraged to crash applications or cause infinite loops and memory exhaustion. The vulnerability landscape was further extended by the GetImageCharacteristics function in magick/image.c which was reachable from crafted PNG, JPEG, BMP, or TIFF files, demonstrating the interconnected nature of these flaws across different image processing pathways. The unspecified nature of the underlying technical details suggests that attackers could exploit various parsing inconsistencies and memory management issues within the image decoding libraries. These vulnerabilities align with CWE-122, which covers heap-based buffer overflow conditions, and CWE-125, which addresses out-of-bounds read errors, indicating that the flaws likely involved improper memory handling during image parsing operations. The attack vectors typically involved sending maliciously crafted image files to applications that utilized GraphicsMagick for image processing, potentially causing applications to crash or consume excessive system resources. The impact of these vulnerabilities was significant as they could be exploited remotely without requiring authentication, making them particularly dangerous in web applications or services that process user-uploaded images. According to ATT&CK framework, these vulnerabilities could be categorized under T1499.004 for network denial of service and T1059 for command and scripting interpreter usage, as attackers could leverage these flaws to disrupt service availability. The memory consumption aspects of these vulnerabilities were particularly concerning as they could lead to resource exhaustion attacks that would prevent legitimate users from accessing services. The affected decoders suggest that the vulnerabilities were likely present in the low-level parsing and memory allocation routines used to process these specific image formats. These flaws were particularly dangerous because they could be triggered through common image formats that are frequently encountered in web applications, email attachments, and file sharing systems, making the attack surface extremely broad. The lack of specific technical details in the original CVE description indicates that multiple distinct code paths could be exploited, potentially involving integer overflows, improper bounds checking, or uncontrolled memory allocation during image processing operations. The vulnerability was ultimately addressed through the release of GraphicsMagick version 1.2.4, which included patches to fix the memory handling issues in the affected image format decoders. Organizations utilizing GraphicsMagick for image processing should have implemented immediate mitigation measures including updating to the patched version, implementing input validation for image files, and monitoring for potential exploitation attempts. The vulnerabilities demonstrated the critical importance of proper input validation and memory management in image processing libraries, as even seemingly benign image files could be weaponized to cause system instability and denial of service conditions. These flaws highlighted the need for comprehensive security testing of image processing libraries, particularly in environments where untrusted image data is processed, as the consequences of such vulnerabilities could extend far beyond simple application crashes to include complete system compromise or service disruption.