Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2026-21496 is a crash risk in iccDEV, a toolkit for ICC color profile handling. A specially crafted profile processed by vulnerable versions can trigger a NULL pointer dereference in the signature parser, causing denial of service. It does not indicate data theft or code execution in the provided sources.
Executive priority
Treat as a moderate availability issue. Patch on normal vulnerability-management timelines, faster for services that automatically process untrusted images, documents, or color profiles. Business impact is service disruption, not confirmed compromise, based on available sources.
Technical view
iccDEV before 2.3.1.2 mishandles input in its signature parser, leading to CWE-476 NULL pointer dereference and related input/error-handling weaknesses. CVSS 3.1 is 5.5: local attack vector, low complexity, no privileges, user interaction required, no confidentiality or integrity impact, high availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely where iccDEV libraries or tools process ICC profiles from users, partners, documents, images, print workflows, or testing pipelines. Systems using iccDEV versions earlier than 2.3.1.2 are affected.
Exploitation context
The CVSS vector indicates exploitation requires local access or a local processing context and user interaction, such as causing a vulnerable workflow to open or parse a malicious profile. The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation evidence.
Researcher notes
The advisory identifies a patched release and references issue, pull request, and commits. Evidence supports denial of service through parser crash only. Do not infer remote code execution, information disclosure, or exploitation in the wild from the provided material.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade iccDEV to version 2.3.1.2 or later.
- Prioritize systems processing untrusted ICC profiles.
- Check vendor advisory and project commits for implementation details.
- Restrict acceptance of untrusted ICC profiles where upgrade is delayed.
Validation and detection
- Inventory applications and containers using iccDEV.
- Confirm installed iccDEV versions are 2.3.1.2 or later.
- Identify workflows that parse externally supplied ICC profiles.
- Review crash reports around ICC signature parsing.
- Verify vendor advisory status before closing remediation.
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-20: Exact CWE lookup
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Open ATT&CK lookupCWE-252: 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 lookupCWE-476: 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 lookupCWE-690: 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-2026-21496 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
- Medium
- CVSS
- 5.5 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
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 vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H1.83.6Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
5.5MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://github.com/InternationalColorConsortium/iccDEV/security/advisories/GHSA-wj8m-6w77-r4rwCVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/InternationalColorConsortium/iccDEV/issues/381CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/InternationalColorConsortium/iccDEV/pull/405CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/InternationalColorConsortium/iccDEV/commit/0e51ceb427925b7e22f0465547df7506d35cda1cCVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/InternationalColorConsortium/iccDEV/commit/b5ad23aceece3789bdf1c47bae1ecf9d7bfcd26dCVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
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.