Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-24485

DoS in Imagemagick ≤ 6.9.13-40

Published
24 February 2026
Modified
27 February 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0045 37th percentile
Risk Priority 57 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2026-24485 is a high-severity Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) vulnerability in Imagemagick Imagemagick. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique OS Exhaustion Flood (T1499.001); ranked at the 37th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SC-5 (Denial-of-service Protection) and SC-6 (Resource Availability) — 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-2026-24485 is a denial-of-service vulnerability in ImageMagick, an open-source software suite for image editing and manipulation. It affects versions prior to 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40. The issue arises when processing a Photo CD (PCD) file lacking a valid Sync marker, causing the DecodeImage() function to enter an infinite loop while searching for the marker. This results in continuous CPU consumption, system resource exhaustion, and program unresponsiveness, classified under CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Any unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability by supplying a specially crafted PCD file to an ImageMagick instance, such as through a web application or service that processes user-uploaded images. No user interaction or privileges are required, enabling exploitation over the network with low complexity. Successful exploitation leads to high-impact denial of service, potentially crashing the affected process or exhausting CPU resources on the target system.

Patches addressing this vulnerability are available in ImageMagick versions 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40, as detailed in the project's GitHub security advisory (GHSA-pqgj-2p96-rx85) and the fixing commit (332c1566acc2de77857032d3c2504ead6210ff50). Additionally, the Magick.NET library, a .NET binding for ImageMagick, released version 14.10.3 with mitigations. Security practitioners should update to patched versions and validate image inputs where possible to prevent exploitation.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

ImageMagick is free and open-source software used for editing and manipulating digital images. Prior to versions 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40, when a PCD file does not contain a valid Sync marker, the DecodeImage() function becomes trapped in an infinite loop while…

more

searching for the Sync marker, causing the program to become unresponsive and continuously consume CPU resources, ultimately leading to system resource exhaustion and denial of service. Versions 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40 contain a patch.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499.001 OS Exhaustion Flood Impact
Adversaries may launch a denial of service (DoS) attack targeting an endpoint's operating system (OS).
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.
T1499.002 Service Exhaustion Flood Impact
Adversaries may target the different network services provided by systems to conduct a denial of service (DoS).
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.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-24484Same product: Dlemstra Magick.Net
CVE-2026-25637Same product: Dlemstra Magick.Net
CVE-2026-23952Same product: Dlemstra Magick.Net
CVE-2026-27799Same product: Dlemstra Magick.Net
CVE-2026-27798Same product: Dlemstra Magick.Net
CVE-2026-25576Same product: Dlemstra Magick.Net
CVE-2026-55594Same product: Imagemagick Imagemagick
CVE-2026-26066Same product: Imagemagick Imagemagick
CVE-2026-46522Same product: Imagemagick Imagemagick
CVE-2026-45031Same product: Imagemagick Imagemagick

Affected Assets

imagemagick
imagemagick
≤ 6.9.13-40 · 7.0.0-0 — 7.1.2-15
dlemstra
magick.net
≤ 14.10.3

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SC-5 directly limits the effects of resource-exhaustion events that constitute uncontrolled consumption.

SC-6 enforces explicit allocation limits on resources, structurally preventing the weakness from occurring.

Process isolation confines resource consumption to separate domains, reducing blast radius without stopping the root 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.IR-04 mostly match
prevents

Explicitly requires monitoring and maintaining resource capacity, directly addressing uncontrolled consumption to preserve availability.

DE.CM-09 partial match
prevents

Continuous monitoring of computing resources can detect resource exhaustion but does not itself enforce allocation limits.

PR.IR-03 partial match
prevents

Resilience mechanisms such as avoiding single points of failure indirectly reduce impact of resource exhaustion.

PR.PS-01 partial match
prevents

Hardened configuration baselines can include resource quotas and limits that constrain consumption.

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

Resource-utilization monitoring and alerting on bottlenecks or overloads limits the impact of denial-of-service or resource-exhaustion attacks.

prevents

By continuously monitoring utilization, stress-testing peak loads, and maintaining documented plans to scale or throttle resources, the control directly limits an attacker’s ability to drive a system into uncontrolled resource exhaustion.

finds

Pre-agreed severity-based prioritization and resource allocation during incident triage reduce the likelihood that an attacker-induced resource exhaustion will overwhelm the organization before corrective action is taken.

mitigates

Business-continuity plans that include resource-management controls reduce the likelihood that an attacker can trigger uncontrolled resource consumption by forcing the system into a degraded or fallback state.

mitigates

Defining RTOs and capacity requirements for ICT services during business-impact analysis forces organizations to provision sufficient resources and throttling mechanisms, reducing the likelihood that an attacker can induce denial-of-service through uncontrolled resource consumption.

finds

Early notification of anomalous resource consumption or system malfunctions enables throttling or isolation before availability is lost.

References