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CVE Record

CVE-2026-5201: Gdk-pixbuf: gdk-pixbuf: denial of service via heap-based buffer overflow when processing a specially crafted jpeg image

A flaw was found in the gdk-pixbuf library. This heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability occurs in the JPEG image loader due to improper validation of color component counts when processing a specially crafted JPEG image. A remote attacker can exploit this flaw without user interaction, for example, via thumbnail generation. Successful exploitation leads to application crashes and denial of service (DoS) conditions.

HighCVSS 7.5Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysishigh

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2026-5201 is a high-severity denial-of-service flaw in gdk-pixbuf2, an image-loading library. A specially crafted JPEG can crash applications that process it, including automatic thumbnail generation paths. The sources describe availability impact, not data theft or privilege escalation.

Executive priority

Prioritize patching in normal high-severity windows, faster for externally facing upload or content-processing services. The business risk is service disruption from crafted images, not confirmed data compromise. No source indicates active exploitation, but the no-interaction attack path increases urgency.

Technical view

The flaw is a heap-based buffer overflow in the gdk-pixbuf JPEG loader caused by improper validation of color component counts. Red Hat rates it high with CVSS 3.1 score 7.5: network exploitable, low complexity, no privileges, no user interaction, availability impact only.

Likely exposure

Exposure is most likely on affected Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems with gdk-pixbuf2 installed that process untrusted JPEG files, especially automated preview, thumbnail, indexing, or image-handling workflows. Listed affected streams include RHEL 7 ELS, RHEL 8 variants, RHEL 9 variants, and RHEL 10.

Exploitation context

The source bundle says remote exploitation can occur without user interaction, for example through thumbnail generation. CISA KEV status is false, and no provided source states active exploitation. Treat exploitability as plausible for exposed image-processing paths, but do not assume exploitation in the wild from this evidence alone.

Researcher notes

Focus validation on package presence, RHEL stream, and whether gdk-pixbuf2 handles attacker-controlled JPEGs. The affected-package list is Red Hat-specific. The bundle does not establish upstream non-Red Hat affected versions, proof-of-concept availability, or memory-corruption impact beyond denial of service.

Mitigation direction

  • Apply the relevant Red Hat security advisory updates for each affected RHEL stream.
  • Prioritize systems that automatically process externally supplied JPEG images.
  • Reduce or isolate automated thumbnailing of untrusted uploads until patched.
  • Check vendor guidance before applying compensating controls not named in advisories.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory installed gdk-pixbuf2 package versions across affected RHEL systems.
  • Map applications and services that process JPEGs through gdk-pixbuf2.
  • Confirm applicable RHSA updates are installed for each RHEL lifecycle stream.
  • Review crash logs for image-processing failures around untrusted JPEG handling.
Prepared
Confidence
high
Sources
12

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

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 · low confidence lookup

CWE-122: Exact CWE lookup

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CVE-2026-5201 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
High
CVSS
7.5 (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:H

Official CVE source material

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.

2CVSS vectors
7Timeline events
3ADP providers
28Source links

SSVC decision data

CISA-ADPCISA Coordinator
Timestamp
Version
2.0.3
Exploitation: noneAutomatable: yesTechnical Impact: partial

CVSS vector scores

2 official scores

We 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.

ScoreVersionSeverityVectorExploitImpactSource
7.5CVSS 3.1HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H3.93.6redhat
7.5CVSS 3.1HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H3.93.6redhat-SADP

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.1 score

7.5High
CVSS 3.1 vector shape for CVE-2026-5201Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector
NetworkAdjacentLocalPhysical
Attack Complexity
LowHigh
Privileges Required
NoneLowHigh
User Interaction
NoneRequired
Scope
ChangedUnchanged
Confidentiality Impact
HighLowNone
Integrity Impact
HighLowNone
Availability Impact
HighLowNone

Vulnerability timeline

Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.

  1. ADP timelineredhat-SADP

    Made public.

  2. Source timelineredhat

    Made public.

  3. ADP timelineredhat-SADP

    Reported to Red Hat.

  4. Source timelineredhat

    Reported to Red Hat.

  5. CVE reservedCVE Program

    The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.

  6. CVE publishedCVE Program

    The CVE record was published.

  7. CVE updatedCVE Program

    The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.

ADP provider summaries

CISA-ADPCISA ADP Vulnrichment
other:ssvc
CVECVE Program Container
redhat-SADPgdk-pixbuf: gdk-pixbuf: Denial of Service via heap-based buffer overflow when processing a specially crafted JPEG image
other:Red Hat severity ratingcvssV3_1
  • 2026-03-31T07:17:23.696Z: Reported to Red Hat.
  • 2026-03-31T00:00:00.000Z: Made public.

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 10gdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.42.12-4.el10_1.5affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 10gdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.42.12-4.el10_2.5affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 10.0 Extended Update Supportgdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.42.12-4.el10_0.4affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Supportgdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.36.12-5.el7_9affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8gdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.36.12-8.el8_10affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8gdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.36.12-8.el8_10affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Advanced Update Supportgdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.36.12-7.el8_2affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Advanced Mission Critical Update Supportgdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.36.12-7.el8_4affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Extended Update Support Long-Life Add-Ongdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.36.12-7.el8_4affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Advanced Mission Critical Update Supportgdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.36.12-7.el8_6affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Telecommunications Update Servicegdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.36.12-7.el8_6affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Update Services for SAP Solutionsgdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.36.12-7.el8_6affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Telecommunications Update Servicegdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.36.12-7.el8_8affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Update Services for SAP Solutionsgdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.36.12-7.el8_8affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 9gdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.42.6-6.el9_7.1affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 9gdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.42.6-6.el9_8.1affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0 Update Services for SAP Solutionsgdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.42.6-3.el9_0.1affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 Update Services for SAP Solutionsgdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.42.6-4.el9_2.1affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4 Extended Update Supportgdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.42.6-5.el9_4.1affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 9.6 Extended Update Supportgdk-pixbuf2, 0:2.42.6-6.el9_6.1affected
Red HatRed Hat AI Inference Server 3.2rhaiis/vllm-cuda-rhel9, 1779223654affected
Red HatRed Hat AI Inference Server 3.2rhaiis/vllm-rocm-rhel9, 1779223651affected
Red HatRed Hat AI Inference Server 3.2rhaiis/model-opt-cuda-rhel9, 1780681984affected
Red HatRed Hat AI Inference Server 3.3rhaiis/model-opt-cuda-rhel9, 1778244559affected
Red HatRed Hat AI Inference Server 3.3rhaiis/vllm-rocm-rhel9, 1778244531affected
Red HatRed Hat AI Inference Server 3.3rhaiis/vllm-cuda-rhel9, 1778274666affected
Red HatRed Hat AI Inference Server 3.3rhaiis/vllm-spyre-rhel9, 1778244546affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 10glycin-loadersunaffected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 10loupeaffected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 10papersunaffected
Weakness

CWE details

CWE-122

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.

CWE-122 · source CWE mapping

Heap-based Buffer Overflow

Heap-based Buffer Overflow represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.

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