CVE-2026-93586 in ImageMagick
Summary
by MITRE • 09/18/2026
ImageMagick before 7.1.2-31 and before 6.9.13-56 contains a use-after-free vulnerability in the ImagesToBlob method, caused by a pointer that is not updated correctly. Exploitation may result in a limited availability impact (e.g., a crash of the affected process). The issue is fixed in versions 7.1.2-31 and 6.9.13-56.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/18/2026
The vulnerability identified in ImageMagick prior to version 7.1.2-31 and version 6.9.13-56 represents a critical memory management flaw within the ImagesToBlob method, which is responsible for converting image data into various file formats such as JPEG, PNG, or GIF. This specific defect is classified under CWE-416, Use After Free, indicating that the software attempts to access memory after it has been freed by the system. In complex image processing libraries like ImageMagick, objects representing images are frequently created, manipulated, and then discarded during multi-step operations. The root cause of this vulnerability lies in a pointer management error where a reference to an object is not correctly updated or nullified immediately following its deallocation. Consequently, subsequent code execution paths may still hold a stale pointer that points to the now-invalid memory address previously occupied by the freed object.
From a technical perspective, when the ImagesToBlob method processes an image, it allocates various internal structures and buffers. If one of these structures is released but a pointer referencing it remains active in another part of the execution context, any attempt to read from or write to that memory location constitutes a use-after-free condition. This can lead to undefined behavior depending on what data has been allocated at that address since the original object was freed. In many cases, particularly with crafted input files designed specifically for exploitation, this flaw allows an attacker to corrupt heap metadata or overwrite adjacent objects in memory. While the primary observed impact is often a denial of service manifested as a process crash due to segmentation faults or access violations, more sophisticated exploitation techniques could potentially lead to arbitrary code execution if the attacker can control the data written into the reused memory space and manipulate the program flow accordingly.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is primarily focused on availability for services that rely on ImageMagick for dynamic image processing, such as web applications allowing user-uploaded images or automated pipelines converting media formats. An unauthenticated remote attacker could trigger a crash by submitting a specially crafted image file to an application using the vulnerable version of ImageMagick. This results in service disruption and potential data loss if temporary files are corrupted during the crash sequence. Although the immediate impact is described as limited availability, the underlying memory corruption nature means that security boundaries may be bypassed in environments where heap exploitation techniques are viable against the specific binary compilation flags and operating system protections present at runtime.
Mitigation strategies require an immediate upgrade to ImageMagick version 7.1.2-31 or later for the major branch, or version 6.9.13-56 and above for legacy systems. Organizations should also implement input validation mechanisms that restrict accepted image formats and sizes before they reach the processing engine. Additionally, deploying runtime application self-protection tools or utilizing operating system-level mitigations such as Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) and Data Execution Prevention can reduce the likelihood of successful exploitation even if a vulnerability is present. Security teams should monitor for CVE-2024-related updates from ImageMagick maintainers and ensure that all instances of the library in production environments are patched to eliminate this memory safety defect.