Memory Leak in ImageMagick VIFF Encoder

Executive Summary

CVE-2026-61870 is a memory leak vulnerability in the VIFF encoder of ImageMagick versions before 7.1.2-26 and 6.9.13-51. This vulnerability occurs when memory allocation fails during the processing of specially crafted VIFF images. The issue causes the program to leak memory, meaning it does not properly release allocated memory, which can eventually exhaust available memory.

Exploiting this vulnerability requires local access and has a high attack complexity. It does not require privileges or user interaction. The vulnerability primarily affects the availability of the system by potentially causing a denial of service.

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Detection Guidance

This vulnerability involves a memory leak in the VIFF encoder of ImageMagick when processing specially crafted VIFF images. Detection would involve monitoring for unusual memory usage or crashes related to ImageMagick processes handling VIFF images.

Since the vulnerability requires local access and high attack complexity, direct network detection is unlikely. Instead, system administrators can check the version of ImageMagick installed to determine if it is vulnerable.

Suggested commands to detect the vulnerability include checking the ImageMagick version:

• magick -version

If the version is prior to 7.1.2-26 or 6.9.13-51, the system is vulnerable.

Additionally, monitoring system logs and resource usage for memory exhaustion or crashes when processing VIFF images may help detect exploitation attempts.

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can impact you by causing a denial of service condition. When an attacker processes specially crafted VIFF images, they can trigger memory allocation failures that lead to memory leaks. Over time, this exhausts the available memory, potentially causing the ImageMagick service or application to become unresponsive or crash.

The impact is limited to availability, with no effect on confidentiality or integrity of data.

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Compliance Impact

The vulnerability in ImageMagick causes a memory leak leading to denial of service, primarily impacting availability without affecting confidentiality or integrity.

Since the vulnerability does not compromise data confidentiality or integrity, it has limited direct impact on compliance with standards like GDPR or HIPAA, which focus heavily on protecting personal data privacy and integrity.

However, the denial of service could affect system availability, which may be a consideration under some regulatory frameworks that require maintaining service availability.

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Mitigation Strategies

The primary mitigation step is to upgrade ImageMagick to a patched version that resolves the vulnerability.

• Upgrade ImageMagick to version 7.1.2-26 or later, or 6.9.13-51 or later.

Since the vulnerability requires local access and high attack complexity, restricting local access to trusted users and limiting the processing of untrusted VIFF images can reduce risk.

• Restrict local access to systems running vulnerable ImageMagick versions.
• Avoid processing untrusted or specially crafted VIFF images.

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