Executive brief
ImageMagick is a widely-used image processing library that handles various image formats including PNM files. A NULL pointer dereference vulnerability in the PNM coder can cause the application to crash when processing specially crafted or large PNM images that trigger memory allocation failures, resulting in denial of service.
Technical details
This vulnerability is a NULL pointer dereference (CWE-476) in ImageMagick's PNM image coder that occurs when a memory allocation fails at a specific point during image processing. The vulnerability stems from improper handling of exceptional conditions (CWE-755) where the failed allocation is not checked before dereferencing the returned pointer. An attacker can trigger this by sending a specially crafted or sufficiently large PNM image that exhausts memory limits. The attack requires network access but has high attack complexity and low privilege requirements. The impact is limited to denial of service (application crash) with no confidentiality or integrity impact. Patches are available in ImageMagick 7.1.2-31 and 6.9.13-56.
Affected products
- ImageMagick ImageMagick before 7.1.2-31 and before 6.9.13-56
Timeline
- 2026-09-03: disclosed
- 2026-09-18: advisory: NVD publication
- 2026-09-03: patched: Patches released in ImageMagick 7.1.2-31 and 6.9.13-56