CVE-2017-12665 in ImageMagick
Summary
by MITRE
ImageMagick 7.0.6-2 has a memory leak vulnerability in WritePICTImage in coders/pict.c.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/15/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-12665 represents a critical memory leak flaw within ImageMagick's PICT image format handling component. This issue specifically affects version 7.0.6-2 of the popular image processing library, which is widely used across various operating systems and applications for image manipulation and conversion tasks. The memory leak occurs during the processing of PICT format images through the WritePICTImage function located in the coders/pict.c source file, making it a targeted weakness in the library's image encoding capabilities.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from improper memory management within the PICT format writer module. When ImageMagick processes certain malformed or specially crafted PICT images, the WritePICTImage function fails to properly release allocated memory resources, leading to gradual memory consumption that can eventually exhaust available system resources. This memory leak pattern aligns with CWE-401, which specifically addresses improper handling of memory allocation and deallocation in software systems. The flaw manifests as a progressive memory consumption issue where each processed image contributes to an increasing memory footprint without corresponding cleanup operations.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple resource exhaustion, as it creates potential denial of service conditions that can severely disrupt applications relying on ImageMagick for image processing. Attackers could exploit this weakness by submitting malicious PICT files to applications that utilize ImageMagick, causing progressive memory consumption that may lead to system instability, application crashes, or complete system hangs. This vulnerability particularly affects web applications, content management systems, and any software that accepts user-uploaded images without proper validation and sanitization measures. The implications are especially severe in server environments where multiple concurrent image processing operations can compound the memory leak effects, potentially leading to complete service disruption.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2017-12665 should prioritize immediate patching of affected ImageMagick installations to version 7.0.6-3 or later, which contains the necessary memory management fixes. Organizations should implement comprehensive input validation and sanitization protocols for all image processing workflows, particularly when handling untrusted user uploads. Network-level protections such as rate limiting and image size restrictions can help reduce the impact of potential exploitation attempts. Security teams should also consider implementing memory monitoring and alerting systems to detect unusual memory consumption patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. From a threat modeling perspective, this vulnerability maps to ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for command and scripting interpreter usage in exploitation scenarios, and T1499.004 for network denial of service attacks through resource exhaustion. System administrators should conduct regular vulnerability assessments and maintain updated security patches to prevent similar issues in other components of their image processing pipelines.