ImageMagick up to 6.9.13-39/7.1.2-14 Image Parser coders/msl.c WriteMSLImage memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in ImageMagick up to 6.9.13-39/7.1.2-14 and classified as problematic. Impacted is the function WriteMSLImage of the file coders/msl.c of the component Image Parser. The manipulation results in memory leak. This vulnerability is cataloged as CVE-2026-25638. The attack may be launched remotely. There is no exploit available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, was found in ImageMagick up to 6.9.13-39/7.1.2-14. Affected is the function WriteMSLImage of the file coders/msl.c of the component Image Parser. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. This is going to have an impact on availability. CVE summarizes:

ImageMagick is free and open-source software used for editing and manipulating digital images. Prior to versions 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40, memory leak exists in `coders/msl.c`. In the `WriteMSLImage` function of the `msl.c` file, resources are allocated. But the function returns early without releasing these allocated resources. Versions 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40 contain a patch.

The advisory is shared for download at github.com. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-25638 since 02/04/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. The exploitation doesn't require any form of authentication. Successful exploitation requires user interaction by the victim. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1499.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 299951 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-25638), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.9.13-40 or 7.1.2-15 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (299951) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-0484). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• Open Source ImageMagick

Productinfo

Type

• Image Processing Software

Name

• ImageMagick

Version

• 6.9.13-39
• 7.1.2-14

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://www.imagemagick.org/

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Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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