Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-3145

Memory Safety in Libvips ≤ 8.18.0

Public PoCMemory Safety
Published
25 February 2026
Modified
25 February 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v4 4.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:L/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 0.0018 8th percentile
Risk Priority 25 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-3145 is a medium-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Libvips Libvips. Its CVSS base score is 4.8 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Process Injection (T1055); ranked at the 8th 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 SA-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — 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-2026-3145 is a memory corruption vulnerability (CWE-119) affecting libvips versions up to and including 8.18.0. The flaw resides in the functions vips_foreign_load_matrix_file_is_a and vips_foreign_load_matrix_header within the file libvips/foreign/matrixload.c. This issue can be triggered by executing a manipulation that leads to memory corruption.

The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.3 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L), indicating a medium severity local attack. An attacker with low privileges on the affected system can exploit it without user interaction, achieving low impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability through memory corruption.

Mitigation is available via the patch commit d4ce337c76bff1b278d7085c3c4f4725e3aa6ece in the libvips GitHub repository. Additional details are provided in GitHub issue #4876 and pull request #4888, with further information on VulDB (ctiid.347651). Security practitioners should update to a patched version of libvips beyond 8.18.0.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A flaw has been found in libvips up to 8.18.0. The affected element is the function vips_foreign_load_matrix_file_is_a/vips_foreign_load_matrix_header of the file libvips/foreign/matrixload.c. Executing a manipulation can lead to memory corruption. The attack needs to be launched locally. This patch is called…

more

d4ce337c76bff1b278d7085c3c4f4725e3aa6ece. A patch should be applied to remediate this issue.

CWE(s)
CWE-119

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1055 Process Injection Stealth
Adversaries may inject code into processes in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
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.
attack.mitre.org →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-3281Same product: Libvips Libvips
CVE-2026-2913Same product: Libvips Libvips
CVE-2026-3147Same product: Libvips Libvips
CVE-2026-3283Same product: Libvips Libvips
CVE-2026-3282Same product: Libvips Libvips
CVE-2026-3284Same product: Libvips Libvips
CVE-2026-3146Same product: Libvips Libvips
CVE-2025-59933Same product: Libvips Libvips
CVE-2025-29769Same product: Libvips Libvips
CVE-2026-16393Shared CWE-119

Affected Assets

libvips
libvips
≤ 8.18.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V17.3.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Secure engineering principles require memory-safe design and coding that structurally avoids buffer-boundary violations.

SI-10 Information Input Validation partial match

Input validation directly enforces bounds checking that stops out-of-bounds reads/writes from being introduced or reached.

SI-16 Memory Protection partial match

Memory protection restricts exploitation impact of buffer overflows without eliminating the underlying coding 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.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices (bounds checking, safe APIs, reviews) directly prevent this class of flaw.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and code analysis directly surface buffer-boundary flaws.

ID.RA-08 partial match
prevents

Receiving and triaging vulnerability disclosures commonly includes buffer-related reports.

PR.AT-02 partial match
prevents

Developer training on secure coding reduces introduction of memory-buffer errors.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching replaces vulnerable code containing buffer-boundary defects.

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.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing in development catches out-of-bounds accesses before release, covering most instances of the weakness.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates memory-safety practices that directly prevent buffer-boundary violations.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can specify memory-safety rules, but do not prescribe implementation details.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture and engineering principles include memory-safe design patterns that mitigate buffer overflows.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer operations, directly eliminating CWE-119.

References