Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
ImageMagick could crash or behave unpredictably when processing a specially crafted PDF. The clearest business risk is disruption in services that automatically convert, resize, or thumbnail uploaded PDFs. Public sources provided do not show active exploitation or a CVSS score.
Executive priority
Treat this as a targeted remediation item for document-processing services, especially public upload paths. It is not supported as an emergency exploitation case by the provided sources, but vulnerable PDF processing can still affect service availability.
Technical view
CVE-2021-20224 is a CWE-190 integer overflow in ImageMagick's ExportIndexQuantum() in MagickCore/quantum-export.c. GetPixelIndex() values could exceed the representable range for unsigned char during crafted PDF processing, leading to undefined behavior or a crash. Fixes are identified for ImageMagick 7.0.10-57 and ImageMagick6 6.9.11-57.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely where ImageMagick processes PDFs from users, partners, email attachments, or other untrusted sources. Internet-facing upload, document conversion, and thumbnail generation workflows deserve priority review. Systems not processing PDFs or not using ImageMagick are unlikely to be affected based on the provided sources.
Exploitation context
The source bundle says KEV is false, and no cited source states active exploitation. The described trigger is processing a crafted PDF with vulnerable ImageMagick code. Evidence supports crash or undefined behavior, not confirmed code execution or weaponized exploitation.
Researcher notes
The available record identifies the vulnerable function, file, weakness class, and fixed upstream commits. Severity scoring is absent, and the provided evidence does not establish exploitation in the wild, exploitability beyond crash or undefined behavior, or affected version ranges before the fixed builds.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade ImageMagick 7 to 7.0.10-57 or later.
- Upgrade ImageMagick6 to 6.9.11-57 or later.
- Apply the relevant Debian LTS ImageMagick security update where applicable.
- Limit untrusted PDF processing until vulnerable instances are updated.
- Check current vendor or distribution guidance for supported package fixes.
Validation and detection
- Inventory systems and containers that include ImageMagick or ImageMagick6.
- Confirm installed versions are at or newer than the fixed releases.
- Identify workflows that process PDFs from untrusted sources.
- Review document-processing crash logs for ImageMagick-related failures.
- Verify distribution packages include the referenced security fix.
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.
CWE-190: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2021-20224 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
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
- https://github.com/ImageMagick/ImageMagick/pull/3083CVE reference
- https://github.com/ImageMagick/ImageMagick/commit/5af1dffa4b6ab984b5f13d1e91c95760d75f12a6CVE reference
- https://github.com/ImageMagick/ImageMagick6/commit/553054c1cb1e4e05ec86237afef76a32cd7c464dCVE reference
- [debian-lts-announce] 20230311 [SECURITY] [DLA 3357-1] imagemagick security updateCVE reference · mailing-list
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.
Integer Overflow or Wraparound
Integer Overflow or Wraparound represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.