Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-61144

Memory Safety in Libtiff ≤ 4.7.1

Public PoCMemory Safety
Published
23 February 2026
Modified
25 February 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0025 17th percentile
Risk Priority 52 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-61144 is a high-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Libtiff Libtiff. Its CVSS base score is 7.3 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Process Injection (T1055); ranked at the 17th 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-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2025-61144 is a stack overflow vulnerability affecting the libtiff library in versions up to and including 4.7.1. The flaw occurs in the readSeparateStripsIntoBuffer function and is classified under CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer). Published on 2026-02-23, it carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.3 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).

The vulnerability can be exploited by a local attacker with low privileges who tricks a user into processing a malicious TIFF file, requiring user interaction. Successful exploitation leads to high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, potentially enabling arbitrary code execution, data corruption, or denial of service on the affected system.

Libtiff advisories and patches are documented in GitLab issue #740 and merge request #757, with fixes applied in commits 09f53a86cf26dfd961925227e59e180db617f26d and 88cf9dbb48f6e172629795ecffae35d5052f68aa. Security practitioners should update libtiff to incorporate these patches and avoid processing untrusted TIFF files with vulnerable versions. Further technical details are available in the referenced GitHub gist.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

libtiff up to v4.7.1 was discovered to contain a stack overflow via the readSeparateStripsIntoBuffer function.

CWE(s)
CWE-119

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1055 Process Injection Stealth
Adversaries may inject code into processes in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
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 →
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-8961Same product: Libtiff Libtiff
CVE-2025-8851Same product: Libtiff Libtiff
CVE-2025-8177Same product: Libtiff Libtiff
CVE-2025-8176Same product: Libtiff Libtiff
CVE-2023-30775Same product: Libtiff Libtiff
CVE-2023-25434Same product: Libtiff Libtiff
CVE-2023-25435Same product: Libtiff Libtiff
CVE-2023-0799Same product: Libtiff Libtiff
CVE-2023-25433Same product: Libtiff Libtiff
CVE-2023-26966Same product: Libtiff Libtiff

Affected Assets

libtiff
libtiff
≤ 4.7.1

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)
  • V17.3.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Secure engineering principles require memory-safe design and coding that structurally avoids buffer-boundary violations.

SI-10 Information Input Validation partial match

Input validation directly enforces bounds checking that stops out-of-bounds reads/writes from being introduced or reached.

SI-16 Memory Protection partial match

Memory protection restricts exploitation impact of buffer overflows without eliminating the underlying coding flaw.

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 (bounds checking, safe APIs, reviews) directly prevent this class of flaw.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and code analysis directly surface buffer-boundary flaws.

ID.RA-08 partial match
prevents

Receiving and triaging vulnerability disclosures commonly includes buffer-related reports.

PR.AT-02 partial match
prevents

Developer training on secure coding reduces introduction of memory-buffer errors.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching replaces vulnerable code containing buffer-boundary defects.

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.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing in development catches out-of-bounds accesses before release, covering most instances of the weakness.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates memory-safety practices that directly prevent buffer-boundary violations.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can specify memory-safety rules, but do not prescribe implementation details.

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

Secure architecture and engineering principles include memory-safe design patterns that mitigate buffer overflows.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer operations, directly eliminating CWE-119.

References