kovidgoyal kitty up to 0.46.x load_image_data heap-based overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in kovidgoyal kitty up to 0.46.x. This issue affects the function load_image_data. The manipulation leads to heap-based overflow. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-33633. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in kovidgoyal kitty up to 0.46.x. This issue affects the function load_image_data. 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:

Kitty is a cross-platform GPU based terminal. Versions 0.46.2 and below contain a heap buffer overflow in load_image_data() that allows any process which can write to the terminal's stdin to crash kitty immediately. The vulnerability is triggered by a single APC graphics protocol command with a PNG format declaration (f=100) whose payload exceeds twice the initial buffer capacity. The overflow is attacker-controlled in both length and content, causing DoS and potentially escalation to RCE itself. This issue has been fixed in version 0.47.0.

The advisory is shared at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-33633 since 03/23/2026. The exploitation is known to be difficult. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 316426 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-33633), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 0.47.0 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch e9661f0f3afb4e4dbffa509adfb3df3c9780ad34 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (316426) and EUVD (EUVD-2026-30964). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Productinfo

Vendor

• kovidgoyal

Name

• kitty

Version

• 0.1
• 0.2
• 0.3
• 0.4
• 0.5
• 0.6
• 0.7
• 0.8
• 0.9
• 0.10
• 0.11
• 0.12
• 0.13
• 0.14
• 0.15
• 0.16
• 0.17
• 0.18
• 0.19
• 0.20
• 0.21
• 0.22
• 0.23
• 0.24
• 0.25
• 0.26
• 0.27
• 0.28
• 0.29
• 0.30
• 0.31
• 0.32
• 0.33
• 0.34
• 0.35
• 0.36
• 0.37
• 0.38
• 0.39
• 0.40
• 0.41
• 0.42
• 0.43
• 0.44
• 0.45
• 0.46

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/

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If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

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