Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2017-14138 is a memory leak in ImageMagick 7.0.6-5 when reading certain WebP images. A service that processes untrusted images could gradually lose memory during error handling, affecting availability. The source bundle does not provide CVSS scoring or active exploitation evidence.
Executive priority
Treat as an availability risk for internet-facing or customer-facing image-processing services. Prioritize inventory and vendor-guided updates, but do not classify as emergency without local exposure or exploitation evidence.
Technical view
The issue is in ReadWEBPImage in coders/webp.c. Memory is not freed in some error paths, demonstrated by VP8 errors. The bundle identifies ImageMagick 7.0.6-5 and references a Gentoo advisory and ImageMagick GitHub issue, but gives no detailed fixed-version data.
Likely exposure
Likely exposure is systems using ImageMagick 7.0.6-5 to parse WebP content, especially image upload, thumbnailing, conversion, or media-processing workflows that accept untrusted files.
Exploitation context
The CVE is publicly disclosed through ImageMagick and Gentoo references. The bundle marks KEV as false and provides no cited evidence of active exploitation, exploit maturity, or weaponized use.
Researcher notes
Evidence is limited to the CVE description and referenced advisory/issue metadata. No CWE, CVSS, exploit status, or fixed version details are included in the provided bundle, so remediation should be tied to vendor advisory review.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory ImageMagick use in image upload, conversion, and thumbnailing services.
- Review ImageMagick and OS vendor advisories for fixed package guidance.
- Upgrade affected ImageMagick packages when vendor fixes are available.
- Restrict untrusted WebP processing until affected systems are updated.
- Apply memory limits and worker isolation to image-processing jobs.
Validation and detection
- Check package manifests and container images for ImageMagick 7.0.6-5.
- Confirm whether services process WebP files from untrusted users.
- Review dependency and OS package advisories for remediation status.
- Monitor image-processing workers for abnormal memory growth.
- Document compensating controls for systems awaiting vendor updates.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CVE-2017-14138 mapping review
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Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- GLSA-201711-07CVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_GENTOO
- https://github.com/ImageMagick/ImageMagick/issues/639CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.