CVE-2016-5240 in GraphicsMagick
Summary
by MITRE
The DrawDashPolygon function in magick/render.c in GraphicsMagick before 1.3.24 and the SVG renderer in ImageMagick allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) by converting a circularly defined SVG file.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/15/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-5240 represents a critical denial of service flaw affecting GraphicsMagick versions prior to 1.3.24 and ImageMagick's SVG renderer. This issue manifests through the DrawDashPolygon function in GraphicsMagick's magick/render.c file and impacts the SVG rendering capabilities of both image processing libraries. The vulnerability enables remote attackers to trigger an infinite loop condition by crafting specially formatted circularly defined SVG files, effectively causing system resources to become exhausted and rendering the affected applications unresponsive.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and loop termination logic within the SVG parsing and rendering components of these image processing libraries. When processing circular references or self-referencing elements within SVG files, the DrawDashPolygon function fails to properly detect and handle recursive structures that could lead to infinite loops during the rendering process. This flaw operates at the intersection of software robustness and input sanitization, where malformed or maliciously constructed SVG content can exploit the rendering engine's inability to break out of circular dependency chains.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as it can be leveraged by attackers to consume excessive CPU and memory resources on systems processing SVG content. In web environments where these libraries are used for image handling and conversion, attackers can submit malicious SVG files that cause the application to enter infinite loops, leading to resource exhaustion and potential system crashes. This makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous in multi-tenant environments or applications where untrusted user input is processed, as it can be used to launch resource exhaustion attacks against critical infrastructure.
Systems utilizing GraphicsMagick or ImageMagick for SVG processing are at risk when these libraries are deployed without proper input validation or when they process untrusted SVG content from external sources. The vulnerability affects web applications, content management systems, and any software that relies on these libraries for image manipulation and conversion tasks. Organizations should consider the broader implications of this vulnerability within their security posture, as it demonstrates the importance of robust input validation and proper error handling in multimedia processing libraries.
The mitigation strategy for CVE-2016-5240 primarily involves upgrading to GraphicsMagick version 1.3.24 or later, which includes fixes for the infinite loop condition in the DrawDashPolygon function. Additionally, implementing proper input validation and sanitization measures for SVG content can provide defense-in-depth protection against similar vulnerabilities. Organizations should also consider implementing resource limits and timeouts for image processing operations to prevent resource exhaustion attacks. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-838, which addresses insufficient input validation, and can be categorized under ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for resource exhaustion attacks, highlighting the need for comprehensive security controls in multimedia processing environments.