Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
A specially crafted TIFF image can make ImageMagick spend excessive time processing Lab color data, causing a hang that may last many minutes. For services that accept or transform user-supplied images, this can translate into resource exhaustion and service disruption rather than data theft.
Executive priority
Treat this as a service-availability risk. It is most urgent where customers or anonymous users can upload images that backend systems process automatically. It is lower priority for systems that do not process TIFF files or only process trusted internal files.
Technical view
CVE-2018-9133 affects ImageMagick 7.0.7-26 Q16, where DecodeLabImage and EncodeLabImage in coders/tiff.c can iterate excessively on a crafted TIFF. The public description frames impact as denial of service. The bundle provides no CVSS score and no precise upstream fixed version.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely in web apps, queues, or automation that pass untrusted TIFF files through ImageMagick 7.0.7-26 Q16. The source bundle does not identify broader affected version ranges beyond that named build.
Exploitation context
The CVE description says remote attackers could cause denial of service with a crafted TIFF file. KEV is false, and the provided sources do not establish active exploitation in the wild.
Researcher notes
Evidence is narrow: the CVE names ImageMagick 7.0.7-26 Q16 and two functions in coders/tiff.c. Distribution advisories indicate security updates existed, but the provided bundle does not include exact fixed versions or exploit telemetry.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory ImageMagick deployments and identify any 7.0.7-26 Q16 usage.
- Apply relevant vendor or distribution ImageMagick security updates.
- Prioritize internet-facing image upload and conversion services.
- Limit processing time, memory, and worker concurrency for untrusted images.
- Restrict TIFF processing where business workflows do not require it.
Validation and detection
- Confirm installed ImageMagick package versions on servers and containers.
- Review image-processing paths for untrusted TIFF input.
- Check Ubuntu and Debian advisories for applicable package updates.
- Test that image workers enforce timeout and resource limits.
- Monitor for repeated slow or stalled TIFF conversion jobs.
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
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CVE-2018-9133 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
- USN-3681-1CVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_UBUNTU
- https://github.com/ImageMagick/ImageMagick/issues/1072CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- [debian-lts-announce] 20200818 [SECURITY] [DLA 2333-1] imagemagick security updateCVE reference · mailing-list, x_refsource_MLIST
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.