CVE-2026-62343 in ImageMagick
Summary
by MITRE • 07/30/2026
ImageMagick is free and open-source software used for editing and manipulating digital images. In versions prior to 6.9.13-51 and 7.0.1-0 and above prior to 7.1.2-26, an invalid kernel can cause a heap buffer over-write when performing a morphology operation with a user supplied kernel. This issue has been fixed in versions 6.9.13-51 and 7.1.2-26.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/30/2026
ImageMagick represents a widely deployed image processing library that serves as both a command-line utility and software development kit for digital image manipulation across numerous operating systems and applications. The vulnerability under discussion manifests within the library's morphology operations, which constitute fundamental image processing functions used for tasks such as morphological transformations, edge detection, and noise reduction in various digital imaging workflows. These operations rely on user-supplied kernel matrices that define the mathematical operations applied to image pixels during processing.
The technical flaw stems from insufficient validation of kernel parameters within the morphology processing pipeline, specifically allowing malformed or invalid kernel specifications to trigger heap buffer overflows during memory allocation and manipulation processes. When a user provides an improperly formatted kernel matrix, the underlying memory management routines fail to properly bounds-check array accesses, leading to unauthorized memory writes that can overwrite adjacent heap memory regions. This particular vulnerability falls under the CWE-121 category of stack-based buffer overflow, though the heap-based nature of the exploitation complicates the attack surface and makes it more challenging to predict memory layout impacts.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends across numerous digital imaging applications that depend on ImageMagick for image processing capabilities. Attackers could potentially exploit this flaw through malicious image files or manipulated kernel specifications supplied to applications using ImageMagick, leading to arbitrary code execution, denial of service conditions, or information disclosure attacks depending on the specific memory corruption patterns. The vulnerability affects both major release lines of ImageMagick, requiring patches for versions 6.x prior to 6.9.13-51 and 7.x prior to 7.1.2-26, demonstrating the widespread nature of the memory management flaw across the library's architecture.
Security researchers have identified this issue as part of the broader category of memory corruption vulnerabilities that represent significant attack vectors in image processing libraries, with similar patterns observed in other multimedia processing frameworks such as libpng and ffmpeg. The exploitability of this vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1203 by enabling adversaries to leverage application flaws for code execution within image processing environments. Organizations relying on ImageMagick-based systems should prioritize patching across all affected versions to prevent potential exploitation, particularly in environments where untrusted image files are processed through automated workflows or user-uploaded content channels.
The fix implemented in the patched versions addresses the core validation issue by introducing proper kernel parameter checking and bounds verification before memory allocation occurs during morphology operations. This remediation approach aligns with defensive programming practices recommended for heap management and input validation, ensuring that all kernel specifications undergo comprehensive validation before being processed by the underlying image manipulation routines. The vulnerability serves as a reminder of the critical importance of memory safety in multimedia processing libraries where user-supplied parameters can significantly impact system stability and security posture.
This issue demonstrates how seemingly routine image processing operations can become attack vectors when proper input validation is absent from core library functions. The vulnerability's presence across both major release branches highlights the need for comprehensive testing and security auditing of widely-used open-source components that form foundational elements of many application ecosystems. Organizations should implement robust monitoring and alerting systems to detect potential exploitation attempts targeting image processing libraries, particularly in environments handling sensitive or untrusted content from external sources.