Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2026-53462 is a medium-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Imagemagick Imagemagick. Its CVSS base score is 5.9 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 14th 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 RA-5 (Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-36189
Vulnerability Data
ImageMagick is free and open-source software used for editing and manipulating digital images. Prior to versions 6.9.13-50 and 7.1.2-25, when an allocation fails in CheckPrimitiveExtent this can result in a heap-use-after-free and result in a crash. This issue has been…
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patched in versions 6.9.13-50 and 7.1.2-25.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Use-after-free leads to application crash, directly enabling exploitation for DoS via T1499.004.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly requires timely application of security-relevant patches to eliminate the use-after-free flaw in CheckPrimitiveExtent once fixed versions are released.
Requires continuous vulnerability scanning to identify installations of vulnerable ImageMagick versions prior to 6.9.13-50 or 7.1.2-25.
Enforces memory-protection mechanisms that can mitigate exploitation or crashes resulting from the heap-use-after-free condition.
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 incorporate memory-safety tooling and reviews that prevent most use-after-free defects.
Vulnerability identification processes can discover use-after-free issues via scanning or analysis but do not prevent their introduction.
Routine patching removes known use-after-free instances after they have been introduced in released software.
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 use-after-free bugs before release.
Secure SDLC mandates memory-safety practices that reduce use-after-free defects.
Application security requirements can specify memory-management rules that mitigate use-after-free.
Secure architecture principles include memory-safety design choices that limit use-after-free exposure.
Secure coding standards directly prescribe avoidance of use-after-free patterns.
Change-management processes help ensure memory-safety fixes are deployed consistently.