GIMP DDS File Parser heap-based overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in GIMP. Impacted is an unknown function of the component DDS File Parser. The manipulation leads to heap-based overflow. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2023-44441. The attack may be initiated remotely. There is no available exploit.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in GIMP (Image Processing Software) (affected version unknown). It has been rated as critical. This issue affects an unknown functionality of the component DDS File Parser. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a heap-based overflow vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-122. A heap overflow condition is a buffer overflow, where the buffer that can be overwritten is allocated in the heap portion of memory, generally meaning that the buffer was allocated using a routine such as malloc(). Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

GIMP DDS File Parsing Heap-based Buffer Overflow Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of GIMP. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file. The specific flaw exists within the parsing of DDS files. The issue results from the lack of proper validation of the length of user-supplied data prior to copying it to a heap-based buffer. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code in the context of the current process. . Was ZDI-CAN-22093.

The weakness was presented 11/14/2023 as ZDI-23-1592. The advisory is shared at zerodayinitiative.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2023-44441 since 09/28/2023. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 04/08/2025).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 233972 (AlmaLinux 9 : gimp (ALSA-2025:3617)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (233972). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Image Processing Software

Name

• GIMP

License

• open-source

CPE 2.3info

• 🔍

CPE 2.2info

• 🔍

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Entryinfo

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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