CVE-2014-9915 in ImageMagick
Summary
by MITRE
Off-by-one error in ImageMagick before 6.6.0-4 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) via a crafted 8BIM profile.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/04/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-9915 represents a critical off-by-one error within ImageMagick's handling of 8BIM profiles, which are metadata structures commonly found in image files such as Photoshop documents. This flaw exists in ImageMagick versions prior to 6.6.0-4 and demonstrates a classic buffer management issue that can be exploited remotely to trigger application instability. The 8BIM profile format is used to store various metadata elements including layers, channels, and color information within image files, making it a common target for exploitation in multimedia processing applications.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from improper bounds checking during the parsing of 8BIM profile data structures. When ImageMagick encounters a malformed 8BIM profile with specific characteristics, the off-by-one error causes the application to access memory locations beyond the allocated buffer boundaries. This memory corruption results in unpredictable behavior including segmentation faults, application crashes, and potential system instability. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it operates at the parsing layer of image processing, where applications must handle untrusted input from external sources, making it susceptible to remote exploitation through crafted image files delivered via web applications, email attachments, or file sharing platforms.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates significant risk for organizations relying on ImageMagick for image processing tasks in web environments, content management systems, or digital asset management platforms. The denial of service condition can be leveraged by attackers to disrupt services continuously, potentially causing availability issues for web applications that process user-uploaded images. The vulnerability's remote exploitation capability means that attackers do not require local access to the system and can target vulnerable applications through network-based attacks. This makes it particularly dangerous in multi-tenant environments or public-facing applications where users can upload arbitrary image files.
The attack surface for CVE-2014-9915 extends across numerous applications that utilize ImageMagick's image processing capabilities, including popular web content management systems, e-commerce platforms, and online collaboration tools. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-129, which describes improper validation of length of buffer prior to a buffer access, and can be mapped to ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks. Organizations using vulnerable versions of ImageMagick should immediately implement mitigations including updating to patched versions, implementing input validation measures, and deploying network-based intrusion detection systems to monitor for exploitation attempts. The remediation process requires careful attention to ensure that patched versions maintain compatibility with existing image processing workflows while eliminating the memory access violations that enable this denial of service condition.