Executive brief
OpenEXR is a high dynamic-range image file format used extensively in the visual effects and animation industries. A vulnerability in how the library handles image headers allows a specially crafted file to crash applications or exhaust system memory. This could lead to a denial-of-service, preventing users from processing images or causing production pipelines to stall.
Technical details
A resource exhaustion vulnerability (CWE-770) exists in OpenEXR version 3.3.2 due to improper validation of 'dataWindow' values in image headers. The library trusts these values to perform computations and memory allocations, specifically in functions like readScanline() and EnvmapImage::resize(). An attacker can provide a crafted EXR file with extreme dataWindow coordinates to trigger excessive loop iterations or multi-gigabyte memory allocations, leading to application crashes (std::bad_alloc) or system-wide memory exhaustion. The issue is addressed in version 3.3.3.
Affected products
- AcademySoftwareFoundation OpenEXR 3.3.2
Timeline
- 2025-07-31: disclosed
- 2025-07-31: advisory
- 2025-07-31: patched: Fixed in version 3.3.3