CVE-2026-90681
Received Received - Intake

Out-of-Bounds Read in jhead EXIF Parsing

Publication date: 2026-09-14

Last updated on: 2026-09-14

Assigner: VulDB

Description
A weakness has been identified in Matthias-Wandel jhead up to 3.3. This affects the function Get16u of the file exif.c of the component EXIF Parsing. This manipulation causes out-of-bounds read. The attack requires local access. The exploit has been made available to the public and could be used for attacks. The project was informed of the problem early through an issue report but has not responded yet.

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Meta Information

Published
2026-09-14
Last Modified
2026-09-14
Generated
2026-09-14
AI Q&A
2026-09-14
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-90681
EUVD
EUVD-2026-77197

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
matthias-wandel jhead to 3.3 (inc)

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-125 The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.
CWE-119 The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it reads from or writes to a memory location outside the buffer's intended boundary. This may result in read or write operations on unexpected memory locations that could be linked to other variables, data structures, or internal program data.

Attack-Flow Graph

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Executive Summary

This vulnerability is an out-of-bounds read in the jhead tool up to version 3.3, specifically in the Get16u function of the exif.c file. It occurs when processing malformed WebP EXIF chunks, causing a 2-byte read past the allocated memory region. The issue arises from a missing bounds check that allows DirStart to point near the buffer end, leading to a 1-byte out-of-bounds read.

Detection Guidance

To detect this vulnerability, inspect jhead versions installed on your system. Check if any version up to 3.3 is present using commands like 'jhead -v' or 'apt list --installed | grep jhead' on Linux. Examine JPEG or WebP files processed by jhead for crashes or errors during EXIF parsing, which may indicate exploitation attempts.

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can lead to information disclosure or denial of service. An attacker with local access could exploit it by providing a specially crafted WebP file, potentially causing the program to crash or leak sensitive data from memory.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability is an out-of-bounds read issue in jhead's EXIF parsing function, which could lead to information disclosure or denial of service. For compliance with GDPR, this could potentially expose personal data in JPEG files, violating data protection principles. HIPAA compliance could be impacted if the vulnerability allows unauthorized access to protected health information stored in image metadata.

Mitigation Strategies

Immediately update jhead to the latest version if available. If no update exists, avoid processing untrusted JPEG or WebP files with jhead. Consider temporarily disabling jhead or replacing it with more actively maintained tools like ExifTool or exiv2 as suggested in Resource 1.

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