Executive Summary

CVE-2026-21501 is a stack overflow vulnerability in the iccDEV library, specifically in the CIccMpeCalculator class used for processing ICC color profiles. The issue arises from improper validation of offsets and sizes when parsing sub-elements within ICC profiles, which can lead to infinite recursion or out-of-bounds memory access during the reading and processing of profile data. This vulnerability allows specially crafted ICC profiles to cause stack exhaustion and program crashes. The problem was fixed by adding strict boundary checks, correcting header size calculations, and improving memory management to prevent recursion and buffer overflows. [1, 2, 3, 4, 6]

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can impact you by causing a denial of service (DoS) condition. When processing a maliciously crafted ICC profile, the stack overflow can cause the application using iccDEV to crash or abort unexpectedly, leading to loss of availability. Since the vulnerability requires user interaction and local access, an attacker could exploit it to disrupt services or applications that rely on ICC profile processing. However, it does not affect confidentiality or integrity of data. [3, 6]

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Detection Guidance

This vulnerability can be detected by testing the iccDEV tool with specially crafted ICC profile files that trigger the stack overflow in the CIccMpeCalculator::SetElem() function. For example, using the tool `iccDumpProfile` with a proof-of-concept (PoC) ICC profile file (such as `CIccMpeCalculatorSetElem_StackOverflow_IccMpeCalc.cpp-L4963.icc`) can cause an AddressSanitizer-detected stack overflow error, indicating the presence of the vulnerability. Running this on a Linux system with AddressSanitizer enabled can help detect the overflow. Specific commands include running `iccDumpProfile` with the crafted ICC profile and monitoring for stack overflow or memory errors. [3]

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Mitigation Strategies

The immediate mitigation step is to upgrade iccDEV to version 2.3.1.2 or later, where the vulnerability has been patched. The fix includes strict boundary and offset checks in the CIccMpeCalculator::Read() and SetElem() functions to prevent stack overflow by validating input sizes and offsets before processing. There are no known workarounds other than applying the official patch or upgrade. Additionally, avoid processing untrusted or specially crafted ICC profile files until the update is applied. [1, 2, 4, 6]

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Compliance Impact

The vulnerability primarily impacts availability due to a stack overflow that can cause denial of service. It does not affect confidentiality or integrity of data. Therefore, it does not directly impact compliance with standards like GDPR or HIPAA, which focus on data privacy and protection. However, the availability impact could indirectly affect compliance if it disrupts services required by these regulations. [6]

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