CVE-2026-109270 in ImageMagick
Summary
by MITRE • 10/12/2026
ImageMagick before 7.1.2-32 contains a memory leak vulnerability in the -process option that allows attackers to cause unreleased memory allocations by supplying certain arguments. Attackers can repeatedly invoke the -process option with crafted arguments to gradually exhaust memory and degrade service availability.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/12/2026
The identified vulnerability resides within ImageMagick, a widely used open-source software suite for creating, editing, composing, or converting bitmap images, specifically affecting versions prior to 7.1.2-32. The flaw is located in the handling of the -process command-line option, which allows users to apply complex image processing operations defined by custom scripts or filters. This particular implementation contains a memory leak vulnerability that triggers when specific arguments are supplied during execution. Unlike typical logic errors that might cause immediate crashes or incorrect output, this defect results in allocated system memory not being properly released back to the operating system after the operation completes. Consequently, each invocation of the vulnerable code path leaves behind residual memory allocations that accumulate over time rather than being freed.
From a technical perspective, this issue represents a classic resource management failure where dynamic memory allocation occurs without corresponding deallocation logic in certain execution paths. When an attacker supplies crafted arguments to the -process option, they can trigger these unreleased allocations repeatedly. Because ImageMagick is often deployed as part of web applications or automated pipelines that process user-uploaded images, this vulnerability can be exploited remotely if the application does not sufficiently sanitize input before passing it to the underlying library. The lack of proper cleanup routines means that every processed image with maliciously crafted parameters contributes incrementally to memory consumption on the host system. This behavior aligns closely with CWE-401, which describes a missing release of memory after effective use, and is categorized under resource exhaustion vulnerabilities where resources are consumed faster than they can be replenished or released.
The operational impact of this vulnerability centers on denial of service through resource depletion. By repeatedly invoking the -process option with crafted arguments, an attacker can gradually exhaust available system memory. As free memory decreases, the host operating system may begin to swap heavily to disk, leading to severe performance degradation for all services running on that machine. In more extreme scenarios, if no swap space is configured or it becomes full as well, the kernel's out-of-memory killer may terminate critical processes, including the web server hosting ImageMagick-dependent applications, resulting in a complete service outage. This type of attack does not require code execution privileges but relies solely on the ability to submit processing requests, making it particularly dangerous for public-facing image manipulation services that do not implement strict rate limiting or resource quotas per user session.
This vulnerability maps directly to MITRE ATT&CK technique T1496, Resource Hijacking, specifically within the context of denial-of-service attacks where computational resources are consumed to degrade availability rather than to mine cryptocurrency or perform other malicious computations. The attack vector is typically classified as Network (T1059) if exploited via a web interface, allowing remote attackers to trigger the flaw without prior authentication in poorly secured deployments. To mitigate this risk, organizations must upgrade ImageMagick to version 7.1.2-32 or later where the memory leak has been patched by ensuring proper deallocation of resources after processing operations complete. Additionally, defensive measures should include implementing strict input validation on all parameters passed to image processing functions, enforcing rate limiting to prevent rapid successive calls that could accelerate memory exhaustion, and configuring system-level resource limits such as cgroups in Linux environments or job objects in Windows to cap the maximum memory usage per process instance. Monitoring tools should also be deployed to detect abnormal spikes in memory consumption associated with image processing services, providing an early warning mechanism for potential exploitation attempts before total service failure occurs.