Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
ImageMagick has a memory safety flaw in XMP profile parsing. A malicious image with crafted metadata can crash software that processes it. The published impact is availability loss, not data theft or code execution, based on the provided sources.
Executive priority
Treat as a scheduled, near-term remediation for internet-facing or automated image-processing systems. It is not currently evidenced as exploited, but crashes in upload or conversion services can create reliability and service-availability risk.
Technical view
CVE-2026-61857 is a heap use-after-free in ImageMagick before 7.1.2-26, caused by a missing null check during XMP profile parsing. CVSS 4.0 is 6.3 with network attack vector, high complexity, no privileges, no user interaction, and low vulnerable-system availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely where ImageMagick processes untrusted or externally supplied images, especially workflows that preserve or parse XMP metadata. Public upload pipelines, thumbnailers, content ingestion, and document conversion services should be checked for affected ImageMagick versions.
Exploitation context
The bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or other evidence of active exploitation. Sources describe crafted image files with specially crafted XMP data causing crashes. The CVSS vector indicates high attack complexity and required attack prerequisites.
Researcher notes
Key uncertainty is exact version range interpretation, especially the 6.x entry in the source bundle. Validate against the GitHub advisory before closing findings. Do not assume confidentiality, integrity, or code execution impact from the provided evidence.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory systems and containers using ImageMagick.
- Upgrade ImageMagick to 7.1.2-26 or later where applicable.
- Check vendor guidance for the listed 6.x version range.
- Restrict untrusted image processing until patched where business impact is high.
- Monitor ImageMagick advisories for updated remediation details.
Validation and detection
- Check deployed ImageMagick versions against the advisory.
- Identify services that process uploaded or third-party images.
- Confirm whether XMP profiles are parsed in those workflows.
- Review crash logs around image ingestion paths.
- Verify patched versions in production images and build artifacts.
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-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 lookupCVE-2026-61857 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
- 6.3 (4.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
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.
SSVC decision data
CVSS vector scores
2 official scoresWe 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:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N——VulnCheckCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L2.21.4VulnCheckVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 4.0 score
6.3MediumVector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Base CVSS 3.1 score
3.7LowVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- GitHub Security Advisory (GHSA-qh5g-q395-cx4j)CVE reference, VulnCheck · vendor-advisory
- VulnCheck Advisory: ImageMagick before 7.1.2-26 Heap Use-After-Free via XMPCVE reference, VulnCheck · third-party-advisory
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.
Unchecked Return Value
Unchecked Return Value represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.