Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2026-26066 is a medium-severity Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) vulnerability in Imagemagick Imagemagick. Its CVSS base score is 6.2 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique OS Exhaustion Flood (T1499.001); ranked at the 25th 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 SC-5 (Denial-of-service Protection) — 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-2026-26066 is a vulnerability in ImageMagick, a free and open-source software suite for editing and manipulating digital images. In versions prior to 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40, a crafted image profile containing invalid IPTC data can trigger an infinite loop when the IPTCTEXT writer processes it. This issue is classified under CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) and CWE-835 (Infinite Loop), with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.2 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H), indicating high availability impact but no confidentiality or integrity effects.
A local attacker with no privileges required can exploit this vulnerability by supplying a maliciously crafted image file to an ImageMagick instance running IPTCTEXT. The processing of the invalid IPTC data leads to an infinite loop, causing resource exhaustion and denial of service, such as application hangs or system slowdowns. No user interaction is needed beyond local access to invoke the vulnerable code path.
The official patch is available in ImageMagick versions 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40. Additional details are provided in the GitHub security advisory at https://github.com/ImageMagick/ImageMagick/security/advisories/GHSA-v994-63cg-9wj3, which security practitioners should review for full remediation guidance.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-7415
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, a crafted profile contain invalid IPTC data may cause an infinite loop when writing it with `IPTCTEXT`. Versions 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40…
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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 can discover unreachable loop exit conditions through static analysis, fuzzing, or execution tracing.
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.
Flaw remediation processes identify and correct infinite-loop defects reported from testing or operations.
Requiring documented development processes and secure coding standards reduces introduction of loops whose termination conditions are unreachable.
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.
Explicitly requires monitoring and maintaining resource capacity, directly addressing uncontrolled consumption to preserve availability.
Secure SDLC practices (reviews, testing, static analysis) directly prevent introduction of infinite-loop defects.
Continuous monitoring of computing resources can detect resource exhaustion but does not itself enforce allocation limits.
Static analysis and vuln scanning during asset assessment can detect unreachable loop exits.
Resilience mechanisms such as avoiding single points of failure indirectly reduce impact of resource exhaustion.
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.
Resource-utilization monitoring and alerting on bottlenecks or overloads limits the impact of denial-of-service or resource-exhaustion attacks.
Security testing can uncover infinite-loop conditions before release.
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.
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.
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.
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.