Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-1837

Memory Safety in Libjxl Project Libjxl 0.9.0 – 0.11.1

Published
11 February 2026
Modified
15 July 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 8.7
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0027 20th percentile
Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-1837 is a high-severity Buffer Access with Incorrect Length Value (CWE-805) vulnerability in Libjxl Project Libjxl. Its CVSS base score is 8.7 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Network Denial of Service (T1498); ranked at the 20th 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 AC-10 (Concurrent Session Control) and SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) — 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-2026-1837 is a memory corruption vulnerability in the libjxl image decoding library. A specially-crafted JPEG XL file can trigger the decoder to write pixel data to uninitialized and unallocated memory regions. This occurs during color transformation of grayscale images to another grayscale color space, where buffers allocated for 1-float-per-pixel are incorrectly used as if allocated for 3-float-per-pixel. The issue affects builds of libjxl that use LCMS2 as the color management system (CMS) engine; an alternative CMS engine can be selected via build flags to avoid it. The vulnerability is rated 7.5 on the CVSS v3.1 scale (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) and maps to CWE-805 (Buffer Access with Incorrect Length Value) and CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling).

Attackers can exploit this vulnerability remotely without authentication or user interaction by supplying a malicious JPEG XL file to any application or service that processes images with libjxl's decoder and LCMS2 enabled. Successful exploitation leads to a denial of service through application crashes caused by the invalid memory accesses, with no reported impacts on confidentiality or integrity.

Details on the vulnerability, including potential patches or workarounds, are discussed in the libjxl GitHub issue at https://github.com/libjxl/libjxl/issues/4549.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A specially-crafted file can cause libjxl's decoder to write pixel data to uninitialized unallocated memory. Soon after that data from another uninitialized unallocated region is copied to pixel data. This can be done by requesting color transformation of grayscale images…

more

to another grayscale color space. Buffers allocated for 1-float-per-pixel are used as if they are allocated for 3-float-per-pixel. That happens only if LCMS2 is used as CMS engine. There is another CMS engine available (selected by build flags).

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1498 Network Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Network Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of targeted resources to users.
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.
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.
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
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.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-11403Same product: Libjxl Project Libjxl
CVE-2026-26955Shared CWE-787, CWE-805
CVE-2025-23319Shared CWE-787, CWE-805
CVE-2024-24851Shared CWE-787, CWE-805
CVE-2025-23318Shared CWE-787, CWE-805
CVE-2026-53016Shared CWE-787, CWE-805
CVE-2026-31607Shared CWE-787, CWE-805
CVE-2024-42951Shared CWE-787
CVE-2024-23265Shared CWE-787
CVE-2024-42969Shared CWE-787

Affected Assets

libjxl project
libjxl
0.9.0 — 0.11.1

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 5 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V15.4.4
  • V1.4.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Directly enforces a hard limit on concurrent sessions, structurally preventing unbounded resource allocation.

Developer testing and evaluation (including fuzzing and static analysis) directly finds incorrect length values used in sequential buffer accesses.

Requires explicit allocation of resources by priority or quota, directly stopping unlimited allocation.

Imposes a limit on consecutive invalid attempts, preventing one specific class of unbounded resource consumption.

Requiring documented secure-development standards and tools can mandate bounds-checked coding practices that avoid the weakness.

Secure engineering principles require explicit bounds checking and correct length calculations when performing buffer operations.

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.IR-04 mostly match
degrades

Monitoring capacity and taking action to maintain availability directly reduces unchecked resource allocation.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent incorrect-length buffer operations via safe APIs, reviews, and testing.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification can discover buffer-length flaws but does not prevent their introduction.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching or replacing vulnerable software directly eliminates known instances of this coding weakness.

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.

finds

Baseline comparison of CPU, memory and bandwidth usage helps surface uncontrolled resource allocations before they cause service degradation.

finds

Security testing in development can detect out-of-bounds accesses, but does not guarantee prevention.

prevents

Capacity projections and elasticity measures ensure that allocation requests are bounded and can be throttled, reducing the window in which an attacker can force unbounded resource reservations.

mitigates

Defining retention periods and deletion schedules for backup copies prevents indefinite accumulation of data on storage media without corresponding resource-management controls.

mitigates

Architectural redundancy and automatic failover limit the impact of an attacker who forces excessive allocations, because spare capacity can absorb the load until the primary instance recovers.

prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates buffer-safety practices that directly prevent incorrect length values.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 8 (2 rules)
  • V-248552 OL 8 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic terminate after becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
  • V-248553 OL 8 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic are terminated after 10 minutes of becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
Oracle Linux 9 (2 rules)
  • V-271710 OL 9 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic are terminated after 10 minutes of becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
  • V-271709 OL 9 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic terminate after becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
  • V-230244 RHEL 8 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic terminate after becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770

References