Executive brief
GIMP is a widely-used open-source image editor. A flaw in its file-psd plugin allows attackers to craft malicious Photoshop Document files that trigger a heap-based buffer overflow when a thumbnail preview is generated. Successful exploitation could crash the application or enable arbitrary code execution on systems processing untrusted PSD files.
Technical details
The vulnerability is an integer overflow occurring in the file-psd plugin's thumbnail preview generation when processing an embedded JPEG header in a specially crafted PSD file. Multiplication of values from the JPEG header overflows, resulting in undersized heap allocation. When the image data is subsequently decoded, the undersized buffer is overflowed, corrupting adjacent heap objects and enabling controlled memory writes. An attacker can trigger this by sending a malicious PSD file to a user or system that processes it; no authentication is required. The overflow can result in application crash or arbitrary code execution depending on heap state and attacker control.
Affected products
- GIMP GIMP <UNKNOWN>
Timeline
- 2026-09-15: disclosed