CVE-2026-106564 in ImageMagick
Summary
by MITRE • 10/07/2026
ImageMagick is free and open-source software used for editing and manipulating digital images. Prior to 7.1.2-32, a crafted EXR image can cause the EXR decoder to write beyond a heap buffer, causing the process to crash. This issue is fixed in version 7.1.2-32.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/07/2026
ImageMagick serves as a widely utilized open-source software suite for creating, editing, composing, and converting bitmap images. Its extensive feature set supports numerous file formats, including EXR, which is commonly used in high dynamic range imaging within the film industry and computer graphics applications due to its ability to store 16-bit or 32-bit per channel data. The security integrity of such a foundational tool is critical for both individual developers and enterprise environments that rely on automated image processing pipelines. A significant vulnerability was identified within the EXR decoder component prior to version 7.1.2-32, representing a severe risk to system stability and potentially confidentiality depending on the deployment context.
The core technical flaw involves a heap-based buffer overflow triggered by parsing a specially crafted EXR file. When ImageMagick processes an image with malformed or maliciously constructed metadata within the EXR structure, the decoder fails to properly validate input boundaries before writing data to memory. This lack of rigorous bounds checking allows the application to write beyond the allocated heap buffer space. Such out-of-bounds writes corrupt adjacent memory structures, leading to immediate process termination and a denial of service condition for any user or automated system attempting to open the malicious file. In more complex exploitation scenarios involving specific compiler optimizations and runtime environments, this type of memory corruption could theoretically be leveraged to execute arbitrary code, although the primary reported impact is stability-related crash.
From a classification perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-122, which denotes heap-based buffer overflow, indicating that the error stems from insufficient validation of data sizes relative to allocated memory regions during runtime operations. The attack vector typically involves an attacker providing a maliciously crafted input file, placing it within CWE-75 as improper restriction of XML external entity or similar injection mechanisms if interpreted broadly, but more accurately fits CWE-20 for Improper Input Validation where the software fails to verify that inputs conform to expected formats and sizes. In terms of adversary tactics, this aligns with MITRE ATT&CK technique T1496, Resource Hijacking, as crashing a service consumes resources and disrupts availability, or potentially T1059 if the overflow is exploited for code execution leading to command and control activities.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple application crashes. For web services that accept user-uploaded images, such as social media platforms, image hosting sites, or content management systems utilizing ImageMagick for thumbnail generation, an attacker could trigger repeated denial-of-service attacks by uploading crafted EXR files. This disrupts service availability and increases operational costs due to the need for manual intervention or automated restarts of affected services. Furthermore, if the vulnerable version is running with elevated privileges as part of a backend processing pipeline, the potential for privilege escalation exists should the memory corruption be exploited further to gain control over the executing process context.
Mitigation strategies primarily involve upgrading ImageMagick to version 7.1.2-32 or later, where the developers have implemented stricter validation checks within the EXR decoder to ensure that all write operations remain within allocated buffer boundaries. Organizations relying on this software should audit their dependency management systems to enforce these updated versions across all environments. Additionally, implementing input sanitization at the application layer can provide defense in depth by rejecting files with suspicious structures before they reach the ImageMagick library. For services processing untrusted image uploads, deploying web application firewalls or specialized file upload filters that inspect EXR headers for anomalies can help mitigate exposure until patches are fully deployed across infrastructure.