CVE-2026-96546
Received Received - Intake

Heap Out-of-Bounds Read in GIMP DDS Loader

Publication date: 2026-09-23

Last updated on: 2026-09-23

Assigner: redhat-SADP

Description
A one-byte out-of-bounds heap read flaw was found in GIMP's uncompressed DDS image loader. When a user opens an uncompressed DDS image, the file-dds plug-in performs an unconditional one-byte look-ahead after processing the final pixel. This may cause the plug-in to crash if the byte immediately following the pixel buffer is inaccessible; no information disclosure or code execution has been demonstrated.

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Meta Information

Published
2026-09-23
Last Modified
2026-09-23
Generated
2026-09-24
AI Q&A
2026-09-23
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-96546
EUVD
EUVD-2026-85543

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 2 associated CPEs
Vendor Product Version / Range
gimp gimp *
gnome gimp From 3.2.6 (exc)

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.

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Executive Summary

This vulnerability is a one-byte out-of-bounds heap read flaw in GIMP's uncompressed DDS image loader. When opening an uncompressed DDS image, the file-dds plug-in reads one byte beyond the allocated pixel buffer after processing the final pixel. This may cause the application to crash if the next byte is inaccessible, but no information disclosure or code execution has been demonstrated.

Detection Guidance

This vulnerability may cause GIMP to crash when opening uncompressed DDS images. To detect it, monitor GIMP crashes during image processing or use tools like AddressSanitizer to identify out-of-bounds reads in the DDS loader.

Impact Analysis

The main impact is potential application crashes when opening uncompressed DDS images from untrusted sources. Since no information disclosure or code execution is possible, the risk is limited to denial-of-service through crashes. Users can mitigate this by avoiding importing uncompressed DDS images from untrusted sources.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability does not directly affect compliance with standards like GDPR or HIPAA as it does not lead to information disclosure or code execution. The primary concern is application stability, which may indirectly impact availability of systems processing DDS images. No specific compliance violations are indicated by this flaw.

Mitigation Strategies

Avoid importing uncompressed DDS images from untrusted sources. No application-level mitigation preserves processing of untrusted DDS files. Update GIMP if a patched version becomes available.

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