CVE-2026-25969
Imagemagick ≤ 7.1.2-15
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:LSummary
CVE-2026-25969 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 29th 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-2026-25969 is a memory leak vulnerability (CWE-401) in ImageMagick, a free and open-source software suite for editing and manipulating digital images. The issue resides in the `coders/ashlar.c` file, where the `WriteASHLARImage` function allocates a structure but fails to release the memory when an exception is thrown. This affects all versions of ImageMagick prior to 7.1.2-15.
The vulnerability has 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, no privileges or user interaction required. Unauthenticated remote attackers can trigger the memory leak by processing a specially crafted image in the ASHLAR format, potentially leading to gradual resource exhaustion and denial-of-service conditions on affected systems.
The official GitHub security advisory (GHSA-xgm3-v4r9-wfgm) confirms the issue and states that ImageMagick version 7.1.2-15 addresses it with a patch that ensures proper memory release upon exceptions. Security practitioners should update to this version or later to mitigate the risk.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-7431
Vulnerability Data
ImageMagick is free and open-source software used for editing and manipulating digital images. Prior to version 7.1.2-15, a memory leak exists in `coders/ashlar.c`. The `WriteASHLARImage` allocates a structure. However, when an exception is thrown, the allocated memory is not properly…
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released, resulting in a potential memory leak. Version 7.1.2-15 contains 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.