Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This ImageMagick flaw can cause gradual memory exhaustion when the software processes certain STEGANO images and exits error paths without freeing memory. The business impact is denial of service, not data theft or system takeover. Systems that accept or automatically process untrusted images are most relevant.
Executive priority
Treat as a normal-priority availability fix, with higher urgency for internet-facing image upload or conversion services. It is not presented as a breach-enabling vulnerability, but repeated processing could degrade or interrupt services.
Technical view
CVE-2026-25796 is a CWE-401 memory leak in ImageMagick ReadSTEGANOImage() in coders/stegano.c. Prior to 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40, the watermark Image object is not freed on three early-return paths, leaking roughly 13.5KB or more per invocation. CVSS 3.1 is 5.3, availability impact low.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely in web services, media pipelines, document converters, or backend jobs that use ImageMagick to process user-supplied images. Products embedding vulnerable ImageMagick versions may also be affected. Environments that do not process STEGANO images or untrusted images have lower practical exposure.
Exploitation context
The provided sources describe denial of service through repeated memory leaks. They do not report active exploitation, and the CVE is not listed as KEV in the source bundle. Exploitation is characterized as network-accessible, low complexity, no privileges, and no user interaction in the CVSS vector.
Researcher notes
The source bundle identifies the root cause as missing cleanup of the watermark Image object in ReadSTEGANOImage() on three early returns. Public details provided here are sufficient for version triage and patch validation, but not for confirming exploit activity beyond the stated denial-of-service potential.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade ImageMagick 7.x to 7.1.2-15 or later.
- Upgrade ImageMagick 6.x to 6.9.13-40 or later.
- Check vendor guidance for packaged or embedded ImageMagick builds.
- Limit processing of untrusted images where immediate patching is not possible.
- Monitor image-processing services for abnormal memory growth or restarts.
Validation and detection
- Inventory ImageMagick versions on servers, containers, and application dependencies.
- Confirm installed versions meet 7.1.2-15 or 6.9.13-40 minimums.
- Identify services that process user-supplied images with ImageMagick.
- Review package manager and container image metadata for embedded ImageMagick.
- Verify post-upgrade service stability and memory behavior in normal workloads.
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
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ATT&CK lookup starting points
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Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2026-25796 mapping review
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Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 5.3 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
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:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L3.91.4Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
5.3MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://github.com/ImageMagick/ImageMagick/security/advisories/GHSA-g2pr-qxjg-7r2wCVE 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.
Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.