CVE-2026-86425 in ImageMagick
Summary
by MITRE • 09/07/2026
ImageMagick before 7.1.2-30 and 6.9.x before 6.9.13-55 contains a heap-use-after-free vulnerability in the Layer method of PerlMagick. An attacker who supplies a crafted list of images can trigger memory access after deallocation, resulting in a crash (denial of service).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/07/2026
The identified security flaw resides within the ImageMagick software suite, specifically affecting versions prior to 7.1.2-30 and the legacy 6.9.x branch before version 6.9.13-55. This vulnerability is located in the PerlMagick interface, which serves as a bridge allowing Perl scripts to interact with the core ImageMagick image processing library. The specific component implicated is the Layer method, a function designed for manipulating and composing multiple images into layered structures such as animations or composite graphics. The nature of this defect is classified as a heap-use-after-free vulnerability, a critical category of memory safety error where program execution continues to reference a pointer after the memory it points to has been deallocated by the system.
From a technical perspective, the root cause involves improper management of object lifecycles within the PerlMagick bindings when processing crafted lists of images. When an attacker supplies a specifically constructed sequence or list of image data, the internal logic fails to properly synchronize reference counting and memory release operations. Consequently, after the underlying C structures representing the image layers are freed from heap memory, subsequent code execution attempts to access these now-invalid pointers. This race condition between deallocation and dereferencing leads to undefined behavior in the application runtime environment. In most practical scenarios involving this specific implementation flaw, the immediate result is a segmentation fault or similar critical error that causes the processing service or script to terminate abruptly.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is primarily centered on denial of service rather than remote code execution or data exfiltration at this stage. Because the exploit results in an application crash, any automated system relying on ImageMagick for image processing will experience a halt in functionality until the process is restarted by an administrator or monitoring daemon. For web applications that utilize PerlMagick to handle user-uploaded images, such as photo galleries or document conversion services, this vulnerability allows an attacker to disrupt service availability simply by submitting maliciously crafted input files. While heap-use-after-free vulnerabilities can sometimes be leveraged for arbitrary code execution through sophisticated memory corruption techniques, the current description highlights the crash and denial of service aspect, indicating that exploitation is straightforward but may not immediately yield higher privileges without further analysis or additional flaws in the surrounding context.
This vulnerability aligns with Common Weakness Enumeration identifier CWE-416, which defines use after free as a condition where software uses memory after it has been freed, leading to unpredictable behavior and potential security breaches. In terms of offensive cybersecurity frameworks, this flaw facilitates attacks categorized under MITRE ATT&CK technique T1499, specifically Endpoint Denial of Service via application crashes or resource exhaustion. The attack vector is classified as local or network-adjacent depending on whether the PerlMagick script runs interactively or serves requests over a network interface such as CGI or FastCGI.
To mitigate this risk, organizations must prioritize patching ImageMagick to version 7.1.2-30 or later for modern deployments, or upgrade legacy systems running the 6.9.x branch to at least version 6.9.13-55. These updates contain code changes that enforce stricter memory management protocols within the Perl bindings, ensuring that pointers are nullified after deallocation and preventing access to freed memory regions. Additionally, administrators should implement input validation strategies for any image processing pipelines, rejecting malformed or excessively complex image lists before they reach the vulnerable Layer method. Regular monitoring of application logs for segmentation faults can also aid in detecting attempted exploitation activities while patching efforts are underway.