Junglewise Threat Intelligence

CVE-2026-2044: GIMP uninitialized memory remote code execution in PGM parsing

CVE-2026-2044 · Severity: high · CVSS 8.8 · Published 2026-02-20

Technologies: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Gimp. Vendors: Red Hat, Gimp, Gnome.

Executive brief

GIMP is a widely used open-source image editor for professional photo retouching and image composition. A security vulnerability has been identified in how the application handles PGM image files, which could allow an attacker to take control of a user's computer. To exploit this, an attacker would need to trick a user into opening a specially crafted malicious image file or visiting a compromised website.

Technical details

A vulnerability (CWE-908) exists in GIMP's PGM (Portable Graymap) file parsing logic due to the use of uninitialized memory. Specifically, the application used 'g_malloc' instead of 'g_malloc0' when allocating memory for file parsing, leading to the use of unpredictable data from previous allocations. An attacker can craft a malicious PGM file that, when opened by a user, triggers this flaw to achieve remote code execution in the context of the GIMP process. The vulnerability was addressed by switching to zero-initialized memory allocation. Red Hat has released updates for RHEL 8 and 9 to mitigate this issue.

Affected products

  • GNOME GIMP 2.8.22, 3.0.4
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, 9

Timeline

  • 2025-11-11: disclosed: Vulnerability reported to vendor via ZDI
  • 2025-12-05: patched: Fix merged into GNOME GIMP master branch
  • 2026-02-19: advisory: ZDI published advisory ZDI-26-118
  • 2026-03-10: patched: Red Hat released security updates for RHEL 9

References

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