Executive brief
libvips is a high-performance image processing library used by many applications to handle image resizing and metadata. A flaw in how it processes image metadata (EXIF tags) could allow an attacker to crash the application. This results in a denial-of-service, potentially disrupting services that rely on the library for automated image handling.
Technical details
A vulnerability exists in the EXIF decoder of libvips due to insufficient range validation of EXIF tag groups (ifdN) before passing data to libexif. This lack of validation can lead to a null pointer dereference or a heap-based buffer overflow when processing specially crafted EXIF metadata. An attacker with local access could exploit this to cause a denial-of-service (crash) of the application using the library. The issue is addressed in libvips version 8.18.2 by adding proper range checks in the exif.c component.
Affected products
- libvips libvips <= 8.18.1
Timeline
- 2026-03-26: patched: Fix merged into 8.18 branch
- 2026-07-17: advisory: GitHub Security Advisory published
- 2026-07-20: disclosed: CVE published to NVD