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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Deliver crafted PAA texture file to victim
  2. Exploit
    User opens or previews file in GIMP
  3. Execution
    Integer overflow yields undersized buffer allocation
  4. Impact
    Out-of-bounds read crashes plug-in or leaks heap memory

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Integer overflow checks
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Execution

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Exploitation Conditions

Exploitation requires the victim to open or preview a specially crafted Bohemia Interactive PAA texture file using GIMP's PAA import/decompression code path, so the malicious image must actually be loaded through that plug-in. Limiting factors that reduce real-world risk: the attack vector is local (AV:L) with mandatory user interaction (UI:R) - the file must reach the user and be deliberately opened/previewed - there is no remote or automated trigger, and the outcome is confined to crashing the plug-in process with possible partial heap memory disclosure rather than code execution or system compromise.

Impact

This is a moderate-severity, low-priority issue in practice. The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H, base 6.1) is internally consistent with the description: exploitation is LOCAL and requires the victim to actively open or preview a malicious file (UI:R), so despite PR:N the attack is not remotely triggerable without social engineering. The primary impact is availability (A:H, plug-in crash/DoS) with only partial confidentiality loss (C:L) from an out-of-bounds read that may disclose adjacent heap memory; integrity is unaffected (I:N) and CWE-190 integer-overflow-to-undersized-allocation does not, per the description, lead to code execution ('terminating the plug-in process unexpectedly'). No EPSS score, KEV listing, or POC was provided, so there is no public exploit identified at time of analysis and no evidence of active exploitation. No signals conflict; rather, the signals converge on a low-urgency file-parsing bug. One noteworthy metadata caveat: the CPE list and tags attribute this to Red Hat Enterprise Linux / Red Hat, but the actual vulnerable software is GIMP (a GNOME project), which Red Hat merely distributes - verify affected-version scope against the GNOME GIMP advisory rather than treating this as an RHEL-core flaw.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker crafts a malicious Bohemia Interactive PAA texture file with dimension values engineered to trigger an integer overflow and emails or hosts it where a GIMP user will download it. When the victim opens or previews the file, GIMP's PAA decompression allocates an undersized buffer and then reads past its boundary, crashing the plug-in (DoS) and potentially exposing adjacent heap memory contents. No public exploit code was identified in the provided data, and the local attack vector with required user interaction (AV:L/UI:R) makes this dependent on successful social engineering.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
No patch listed yet

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AnalysisAIv1 – Oct 16, 2026

Denial of service and limited memory disclosure in GIMP's Bohemia Interactive (PAA) texture importer, triggered when a user opens or previews a specially crafted .paa file through the affected plug-in. An integer overflow in the image-dimension calculation during decompression causes an undersized heap buffer to be allocated, and the subsequent out-of-bounds read crashes the plug-in process and may expose fragments of heap memory (CVSS 3.1 base 6.1, AV:L/PR:N/UI:R, C:L/A:H). The attack requires the victim to deliberately load the malicious file locally, so there is no public exploit identified at time of analysis and no confirmed active exploitation (CISA KEV) - this is assessed as a moderate-severity, low-priority issue in practice.

RemediationAI

No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis: the provided references (Red Hat CVE page, Red Hat Bugzilla 2554456, and the upstream GNOME GitLab issue) contain no fixed version, so no patched GIMP build can be cited. Until a fix ships, treat untrusted .paa files as unsafe and apply compensating controls: block or filter Bohemia Interactive PAA/PAC texture files at mail gateways, download managers and file-sharing endpoints so they cannot reach a user's desktop, accepting that users who legitimately work with Arma-series assets will need an out-of-band, trusted delivery path; on Linux desktops, disable thumbnail/preview generation that invokes GIMP's plug-in (for example, remove or disable the GIMP thumbnailer entry used by GNOME/Nautilus under /usr/share/thumbnailers) so merely browsing a directory cannot trigger the decompression path, at the cost of losing GIMP-generated thumbnails; and where PAA support is not required, remove or rename the PAA plug-in binary shipped with the GIMP package (commonly under the plug-ins directory as the PAA import plug-in), which eliminates the attack surface but prevents all PAA loading - note this file may be replaced on package upgrade, so the change must be re-applied or the package held. Because the vulnerable code runs in a plug-in process, running GIMP inside a confined sandbox (for example the Flatpak build with restricted filesystem access) reduces the consequence of a crash and limits what any leaked heap data could be correlated with; monitor the Red Hat and upstream GNOME advisories for the eventual patched package and apply it as soon as it is released.

Affects your stack

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Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

The flaw is a CWE-190 integer overflow in the PAA (Bohemia Interactive texture) import/decompression path used by GIMP, a plug-in that parses a proprietary, RLE-compressed, mipmapped texture format associated with Bohemia Interactive's Real Virtuality engine titles. When computing image dimensions during decompression, the arithmetic can wrap, producing a small allocation size while later processing indexes according to the un-wrapped (larger) dimensions; the result is a heap out-of-bounds read that terminates the plug-in process and can leak adjacent heap contents. Because the vulnerable code runs inside GIMP's separate plug-in process rather than the main application, the impact is contained to a crash of that process with possible partial memory disclosure (integrity impact is absent and confidentiality impact is low per the CVSS vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H). The CPE data maps this issue to GIMP as shipped in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, meaning the exposure is primarily to users of the GIMP packages distributed through those RHEL channels.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

Vendor (redhat) PRIMARY MEDIUM
NVD 6.1 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H
vuln.today AI 6.1 MEDIUM

File must be opened locally by the victim so AV:L and UI:R; no prior auth needed (PR:N); crash gives A:H and out-of-bounds read gives C:L with no integrity impact.

3.1 AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H
4.0 AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:L/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Primary rating from Vendor (redhat).

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
None
Availability
High

DescriptionNVD

A flaw was found in GIMP. An attacker can cause a Denial of Service (DoS) or potentially disclose sensitive memory contents by convincing a user to open or preview a specially crafted Bohemia Interactive (PAA) texture file. Due to an integer overflow when calculating image dimensions during file decompression, the application allocates an undersized memory buffer. Subsequent processing reads memory past the buffer boundary, terminating the plug-in process unexpectedly.

Threat Intelligence Overview

Prevalence
Medium
GIMP is a popular open-source image editor, but the PAA import path is niche
Social Media
1
Sightings
Data Quality
2 sources
Confidence: Low

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity MEDIUM
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS N/A
Patch available No
Active threat No
Deciding rule
MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Defer
Exploitation· derived
None
System Exposure· derived
Small
Automatable· derived
No
Human Impact· derived
Medium

Priority Score

30
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +30
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Integer overflow occurs when an arithmetic operation produces a result that exceeds the maximum value a given integer type can store.

Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.

Affected Products (CPE)NVD

cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_8:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_9:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

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