CVE-2026-106569 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, missing validation and resource checks in the ASE decoder allow a crafted ASE image to cause a crash or a long-running operation. 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 foundational toolset for developers and system administrators involved in digital image processing, widely deployed across web applications, content management systems, and automated pipelines that handle user-uploaded media. The software’s extensive format support is both its strength and its primary attack surface, particularly when dealing with complex or less common file formats like the Adobe Swatch Exchange ASE specification. In versions prior to 7.1.2-32, a critical deficiency existed within the decoder responsible for parsing these specific image files. This vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of input data and inadequate resource management controls during the decoding process. When an attacker provides a maliciously crafted ASE file designed to exploit this logic gap, the application fails to properly verify structural integrity or limit computational resources consumed by malformed inputs.
The technical flaw centers on the absence of rigorous checks that ensure the decoder does not enter infinite loops or allocate excessive memory based on corrupted metadata within the image header. This lack of boundary checking allows a specially constructed file to trigger either an immediate crash due to unhandled exceptions and out-of-bounds access, or more insidiously, a long-running operation that consumes significant CPU cycles without terminating. Such behavior effectively transforms a simple image processing function into a vector for denial of service attacks. The impact is severe in environments where ImageMagick processes images from untrusted sources, such as public-facing web portals allowing file uploads. An attacker can leverage this flaw to exhaust server resources, rendering the application unavailable to legitimate users and potentially causing cascading failures in dependent services that rely on image processing capabilities.
From a classification perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-20 Improper Input Validation, as the software fails to adequately sanitize or verify data received from external sources before processing it. Additionally, the potential for resource exhaustion maps directly to CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption and is categorized under MITRE ATT&CK technique T1496 Resource Hijacking, specifically within the context of denial-of-service via computational exhaustion. The operational impact extends beyond simple availability loss; in some configurations, such crashes can lead to core dumps that may inadvertently leak sensitive memory contents if not properly secured by system-level protections like ASLR and DEP.
Mitigation strategies require immediate action to update the ImageMagick installation to version 7.1.2-32 or later, where these validation checks have been implemented. For organizations unable to patch immediately due to dependency constraints, implementing strict input filtering at the network perimeter is advisable. This includes rejecting files that do not match expected MIME types and limiting file sizes to prevent large payload delivery. Furthermore, deploying resource limits such as ulimits on Linux systems or job objects in Windows environments can restrict the maximum CPU time and memory a single process may consume, thereby containing the impact of any successful exploitation attempt until a permanent fix is applied. Regular auditing of third-party libraries used for media processing remains essential to maintain robust security posture against evolving input validation flaws.