CVE-2025-55005 in ImageMagick
Summary
by MITRE • 08/13/2025
ImageMagick is free and open-source software used for editing and manipulating digital images. Prior to version 7.1.2-1, when preparing to transform from Log to sRGB colorspaces, the logmap construction fails to handle cases where the reference-black or reference-white value is larger than 1024. This leads to corrupting memory beyond the end of the allocated logmap buffer. This issue has been patched in version 7.1.2-1.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/06/2025
ImageMagick represents a widely deployed image processing library that serves as a critical component in numerous digital media workflows across enterprise and consumer environments. The vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-55005 specifically targets the color space transformation functionality within the software, particularly when converting images from Log to sRGB colorspaces. This flaw exists in versions prior to 7.1.2-1 and demonstrates a classic buffer overflow condition that can be exploited to compromise system integrity. The vulnerability manifests during the logmap construction process, which is a fundamental operation in color space conversion that maps logarithmic color values to standard RGB representations.
The technical flaw occurs when the software encounters reference-black or reference-white color values that exceed the threshold of 1024 units. During normal operation, ImageMagick allocates a fixed-size buffer to store logmap data structures that represent the color transformation mappings. However, when these reference values surpass the 1024 limit, the buffer allocation logic fails to properly validate the input parameters, resulting in memory corruption that extends beyond the allocated buffer boundaries. This memory corruption can overwrite adjacent memory regions, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution or system instability. The vulnerability directly maps to CWE-121, which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and CWE-787, which covers out-of-bounds write vulnerabilities in heap-based memory structures.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends significantly across multiple attack vectors and threat scenarios. An attacker could exploit this issue by crafting malicious image files containing oversized reference color values, which when processed by vulnerable ImageMagick installations would trigger the buffer overflow condition. This vulnerability is particularly concerning because ImageMagick is frequently used in web applications, content management systems, and digital asset management platforms where users can upload images. The exploitation could occur in automated processing pipelines, making it a high-risk vulnerability for organizations that rely on ImageMagick for image handling workflows. According to ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability aligns with T1203, which covers exploitation for privilege escalation, and T1059, covering command and script injection techniques that could result from successful memory corruption attacks.
Organizations utilizing ImageMagick should prioritize immediate patching to version 7.1.2-1 or later, which includes proper input validation and buffer size checks for logmap construction operations. Additional mitigations include implementing strict image file validation protocols, restricting image upload capabilities to trusted sources, and deploying network segmentation to limit exposure of vulnerable systems. Security monitoring should focus on detecting unusual image processing activities and memory allocation patterns that could indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of comprehensive input validation in color management systems, as similar issues could potentially exist in other color space conversion libraries. Organizations should conduct thorough vulnerability assessments of their image processing workflows and ensure that all third-party image manipulation tools are regularly updated to prevent similar memory corruption issues from compromising their digital infrastructure.