Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-28164

Memory Safety in Libpng 1.6.43 – 1.6.46

Public PoCMemory Safety
Published
27 January 2026
Modified
04 March 2026
CVSS Score v3.1 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0014 4th percentile
Risk Priority 40 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-28164 is a medium-severity Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime (CWE-401) vulnerability in Libpng Libpng. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 4th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Buffer Overflow vulnerability in libpng 1.6.43-1.6.46 allows a local attacker to cause a denial of service via png_create_read_struct() function.

CWE(s)
CWE-401CWE-120

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
attack.mitre.org →
T1499.003 Application Exhaustion Flood Impact
Adversaries may target resource intensive features of applications to cause a denial of service (DoS), denying availability to those applications.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-28162Same product: Libpng Libpng
CVE-2026-33416Same product: Libpng Libpng
CVE-2026-22801Same product: Libpng Libpng
CVE-2025-66293Same product: Libpng Libpng
CVE-2026-22695Same product: Libpng Libpng
CVE-2025-64720Same product: Libpng Libpng
CVE-2025-64505Same product: Libpng Libpng
CVE-2025-64506Same product: Libpng Libpng
CVE-2025-65018Same product: Libpng Libpng
CVE-2026-33636Same product: Libpng Libpng

Affected Assets

libpng
libpng
1.6.43 — 1.6.46

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V5.2.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation (static analysis, fuzzing, or runtime leak detection) directly finds missing deallocation.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

Input validation directly enforces size checks before buffer copies.

SA-15 Development Process, Standards, and Tools partial match

Requiring documented development standards and tools can mandate memory-management disciplines that avoid leaks at introduction.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Engineering principles applied during development can require explicit resource-release patterns that stop memory leaks from being coded.

SI-16 Memory Protection partial match

Memory protection limits the impact of an overflow once it occurs.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly enforce proper memory allocation/deallocation via coding standards, reviews, and tooling.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes such as code review or scanning detect classic buffer overflows before exploitation.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Routine patching replaces vulnerable code containing unchecked buffer copies with corrected versions.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.28 Secure coding mostly match
prevents

Secure coding directly requires bounds-checked memory operations, addressing the root cause of CWE-120.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing in development can detect unreleased memory, providing partial coverage of the weakness.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates memory-management practices that reduce missing-release defects.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can specify explicit memory-release rules, partially mitigating the weakness.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure system architecture and engineering principles include resource-management guidelines that address memory leaks.

A.8.6 Capacity management partial match
finds

Capacity management may detect memory exhaustion symptoms but does not prevent the coding flaw.

References