CVE-2026-25796
Imagemagick ≤ 6.9.13-40
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:LSummary
CVE-2026-25796 is a medium-severity Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime (CWE-401) vulnerability in Imagemagick Imagemagick. Its CVSS base score is 5.3 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked at the 31th 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 SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — 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-2026-25796 is a memory leak vulnerability in ImageMagick, a free and open-source software suite for editing and manipulating digital images. The issue resides in the `ReadSTEGANOImage()` function within `coders/stegano.c`, where the `watermark` Image object is not freed along three early-return paths. This results in a definite memory leak of approximately 13.5KB or more per invocation, affecting all versions prior to 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40.
The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.3 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L), indicating it is exploitable over the network with low attack complexity, requiring no privileges or user interaction. Any unauthenticated attacker can trigger the leak by supplying a specially crafted image that invokes the STEGANO coder, leading to repeated memory consumption and potential denial of service through resource exhaustion on affected systems processing such images.
The ImageMagick GitHub security advisory (GHSA-g2pr-qxjg-7r2w) confirms the patch in versions 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40, which addresses the failure to free the watermark object on the identified early-return paths. Security practitioners should update to these fixed releases to mitigate the issue, classified under CWE-401 (Memory Leak).
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-7446
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, in `ReadSTEGANOImage()` (`coders/stegano.c`), the `watermark` Image object is not freed on three early-return paths, resulting in a definite memory leak (~13.5KB+…
more
per invocation) that can be exploited for 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
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation (static analysis, fuzzing, or runtime leak detection) directly finds missing deallocation.
Requiring documented development standards and tools can mandate memory-management disciplines that avoid leaks at introduction.
Engineering principles applied during development can require explicit resource-release patterns that stop memory leaks from being coded.
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.
Secure SDLC practices directly enforce proper memory allocation/deallocation via coding standards, reviews, and tooling.
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.
Security testing in development can detect unreleased memory, providing partial coverage of the weakness.
Secure development life cycle mandates memory-management practices that reduce missing-release defects.
Application security requirements can specify explicit memory-release rules, partially mitigating the weakness.
Secure system architecture and engineering principles include resource-management guidelines that address memory leaks.
Secure coding standards directly require proper allocation/deallocation, covering most of this weakness.
Capacity management may detect memory exhaustion symptoms but does not prevent the coding flaw.