strukturag libheif up to 1.21.x out-of-bounds

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in strukturag libheif up to 1.21.x. It has been classified as problematic. This vulnerability affects unknown code. Performing a manipulation results in out-of-bounds. This vulnerability is cataloged as CVE-2026-32738. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, was found in strukturag libheif up to 1.21.x. This affects an unknown code block. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a out-of-bounds vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-125. The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. This is going to have an impact on availability. The summary by CVE is:

libheif is a HEIF and AVIF file format decoder and encoder. In versions 1.21.2 and below, a crafted 792-byte HEIF sequence file with samples_per_chunk=0 in the stsc box causes an unsigned integer underflow in the Chunk constructor (m_last_sample = 0 + 0 - 1 = UINT32_MAX), mapping all samples to an empty chunk and resulting in a denial of service. When any sample is accessed, the library reads from index 0 of an empty std::vector, causing a guaranteed SEGV (null-page read). The file parses successfully without producing an error; the crash occurs on the first frame access. This issue has been fixed in version 1.22.0.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-32738 since 03/13/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. No form of authentication is needed for exploitation. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 316415 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-32738), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 1.22.0 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (316415). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

• strukturag

Name

• libheif

Version

• 1.0
• 1.1
• 1.2
• 1.3
• 1.4
• 1.5
• 1.6
• 1.7
• 1.8
• 1.9
• 1.10
• 1.11
• 1.12
• 1.13
• 1.14
• 1.15
• 1.16
• 1.17
• 1.18
• 1.19
• 1.20
• 1.21

Website

• Product: https://github.com/strukturag/libheif/

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Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

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