CVE-2026-46602 in x-image-tiff
Summary
by MITRE • 06/25/2026
The TIFF decoder does not set a limit on the size of tiles in tiled images, permitting a malicious or corrupt image containing a very large tile to cause unbounded memory consumption.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/26/2026
This vulnerability resides within the technical implementation of TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) decoding libraries where the software fails to enforce reasonable constraints on tile dimensions within tiled image structures. The flaw represents a classic resource exhaustion issue that can be exploited through crafted image files containing excessively large tile specifications. When a TIFF decoder encounters such malformed input, it attempts to allocate memory proportional to the specified tile dimensions without validation, potentially leading to system instability or complete denial of service conditions. The vulnerability specifically impacts applications that process tiled TIFF images, including graphic design software, document management systems, and image processing pipelines that rely on standard TIFF libraries for file interpretation.
The technical execution of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation within the TIFF parsing logic where tile size parameters are accepted without bounds checking. According to CWE-770, this represents an allocation of resources without proper limits, creating a potential for unbounded memory consumption that can be exploited by malicious actors. When processing tiled images, the decoder reads tile width and height values from the image metadata and directly uses these values to determine memory allocation requirements. The absence of size validation allows attackers to specify tiles with dimensions in the gigabytes or terabytes range, causing the application to attempt allocating massive amounts of memory that may exceed system capabilities or cause the process to crash.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends across multiple security domains and can be categorized under ATT&CK technique T1203 - Exploitation for Client Execution. Systems utilizing TIFF decoding libraries become susceptible to resource exhaustion attacks where a single malicious image file can consume all available memory on a target system, leading to system slowdowns or complete system crashes. This vulnerability is particularly dangerous in environments where automated image processing occurs, such as web applications accepting user uploads, content management systems, or digital asset management platforms. The attack surface includes any application that processes TIFF files without implementing proper input sanitization and size limitation mechanisms.
Mitigation strategies must address both immediate defensive measures and long-term architectural improvements to prevent similar issues in the future. Organizations should implement strict tile dimension limits within their TIFF processing libraries, typically capping tile sizes at reasonable thresholds such as 1024x1024 pixels or less depending on system constraints. Input validation should be enforced during the initial parsing phase of TIFF files, with explicit checks against maximum allowable tile dimensions before any memory allocation occurs. Additionally, implementing timeout mechanisms and memory monitoring for image processing tasks can help detect and prevent excessive resource consumption. Security patches should be applied to all affected libraries and applications, with regular vulnerability assessments to ensure that similar issues are not present in other image format decoders or file parsing components within the system architecture.