CVE-2025-55212 in ImageMagick
Summary
by MITRE • 08/26/2025
ImageMagick is free and open-source software used for editing and manipulating digital images. Prior to versions 6.9.13-28 and 7.1.2-2, passing a geometry string containing only a colon (":") to montage -geometry leads GetGeometry() to set width/height to 0. Later, ThumbnailImage() divides by these zero dimensions, triggering a crash (SIGFPE/abort), resulting in a denial of service. This issue has been patched in versions 6.9.13-28 and 7.1.2-2.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/22/2025
CVE-2025-55212 represents a critical denial of service vulnerability within ImageMagick, a widely deployed image processing library that serves as a foundational component in numerous digital imaging applications and web services. The vulnerability stems from improper input validation within the montage command's geometry parameter handling, specifically when processing geometry strings that contain only a colon character. This flaw demonstrates a classic case of insufficient boundary checking and arithmetic operation validation that can be exploited by malicious actors to disrupt system availability.
The technical execution of this vulnerability occurs through the GetGeometry() function which fails to properly validate the geometry string parameter when it consists solely of a colon character. This malformed input causes the function to incorrectly set both width and height dimensions to zero values within the internal image processing structures. Subsequently, when ThumbnailImage() attempts to perform mathematical operations using these zero dimensions, it triggers a floating-point exception (SIGFPE) or system abort, causing the application to crash and terminate unexpectedly. This behavior aligns with CWE-369, which addresses the use of division by zero in software implementations, and represents a direct violation of secure coding practices that require proper input sanitization and validation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as ImageMagick's widespread adoption across web applications, content management systems, and digital asset management platforms means that exploitation could affect numerous production environments. Attackers could leverage this vulnerability to perform denial of service attacks against systems that rely on ImageMagick for image processing tasks, potentially causing cascading failures in web applications that process user-uploaded images. The vulnerability particularly affects systems where user input directly influences image manipulation operations, making it a significant concern for web applications that handle untrusted image data from external sources. This issue demonstrates how seemingly benign input validation failures can result in critical system instability and availability concerns.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2025-55212 should prioritize immediate patch deployment to versions 6.9.13-28 or 7.1.2-2, which contain the necessary fixes for proper geometry string validation. Organizations should also implement input sanitization measures at application layers that process image operations, including validation of geometry parameters before they reach ImageMagick's internal functions. Network-level protections such as rate limiting and input filtering can provide additional defense-in-depth measures, while monitoring systems should be configured to detect unusual patterns of service termination or process crashes that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability's classification under ATT&CK technique T1499.004 for network denial of service highlights the importance of implementing robust application-level security controls and maintaining up-to-date software dependencies to prevent exploitation of such fundamental arithmetic and validation flaws.