Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessDeliver crafted SFW image to target user
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DeliveryUser opens file in GIMP
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ExploitSFW plugin parses malformed image header
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ExecutionInteger overflow produces unbounded VLA dimension
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ImpactStack exhaustion crashes GIMP process
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 that the target user actively open a specially crafted SFW image file in GIMP - user interaction is mandatory per the CVSS UI:R metric. The attack vector is local (AV:L), meaning the crafted file must be present on or accessible to the local system in a way that GIMP processes it directly. No special privileges are required of the attacker (PR:N), but the attacker has no remote access vector - the crafted file must reach the victim through a delivery mechanism such as email or a shared drive. The Seattle FilmWorks plugin must be active, which is the default GIMP configuration and requires no non-default setup. Exploitation is strictly constrained to crashing the GIMP process with no code execution or data access; the scope does not change (S:U). RHEL 6-9 are confirmed affected platforms; other Linux distributions shipping the same GIMP source package are likely affected by inference from the wildcard CPE. |
| Impact | Real-world risk is moderate-to-low. The CVSS 5.5 score accurately reflects the constrained impact: attack vector is local (AV:L), user interaction is mandatory (UI:R), and impact is limited entirely to availability (A:H) with no confidentiality or integrity exposure. No EPSS data was provided, CISA KEV listing is absent, and no public POC has been reported, all of which align with a low exploitation likelihood. The primary threat scenario is social engineering - tricking a user into opening a crafted SFW file - and SFW is an obscure legacy format that sees minimal real-world use, further reducing opportunistic exploitation surface. The absence of privilege escalation, remote execution capability, or data disclosure keeps this squarely in the nuisance-DoS tier. Patch prioritization should favor interactive workstations in environments where users routinely open untrusted or externally sourced image files; mass exploitation campaigns against this vulnerability are implausible. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker crafts a malicious SFW image file with a header value engineered to cause integer overflow during VLA size calculation in the GIMP Seattle FilmWorks plugin. The file is delivered to a target user via email attachment, file share, or a download link. When the user opens the file in GIMP, the plugin processes the header, allocates an unbounded stack region, and the application crashes - denying the user access to GIMP until it is restarted. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Aug 26, 2026
Stack-based denial of service in GIMP's Seattle FilmWorks (SFW) image plugin crashes the application when a crafted SFW file triggers an unbounded variable-length array allocation on the stack. The flaw affects all GIMP versions per the GNOME CPE string and is confirmed across Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 through 9. An attacker who can deliver a malicious SFW file to a user can reliably crash the GIMP process with no code execution or data exposure; no public exploit has been identified at time of analysis.
RemediationAI
No vendor-released patch with a confirmed fixed version has been identified at time of analysis. Administrators should monitor the upstream GNOME work item at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/work_items/16582 and the Red Hat security advisory at https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-79902 for patch availability; Red Hat Enterprise Linux users should watch for RHSA advisories covering RHEL 6 through 9 GIMP packages. As a compensating control, organizations can restrict GIMP's handling of SFW files by removing or disabling the SFW file-type plugin - this eliminates the vulnerable code path entirely but also removes all SFW format support, which is an acceptable trade-off given the format's rarity. In environments where GIMP processes untrusted files, running GIMP within a sandbox (e.g., Flatpak with restricted filesystem access, or a dedicated low-privilege user account) limits the blast radius of a crash to that session only.
Affected VersionsENISA
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Technical ContextAI · show details
The vulnerability resides in GIMP's Seattle FilmWorks plugin, which handles legacy SFW image files - a proprietary format historically associated with the Seattle FilmWorks photo-processing service. The plugin reads an attacker-controlled integer from the image header and uses it to dimension a Variable-Length Array (VLA) allocated on the stack. CWE-190 (Integer Overflow or Wraparound) is the root cause: without bounds checking, a crafted size value can overflow during arithmetic and produce an unexpected allocation dimension, or simply supply an enormous value that exhausts stack space directly. Because VLAs occupy the call stack rather than the heap, the failure mode is an immediate process crash rather than a heap-corruption path that might enable code execution. Affected products per CPE include cpe:2.3:a:gnome:gimp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* (all tracked GIMP versions) and RHEL 6, 7, 8, and 9 platform packages.
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Severity by source
AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Local file processing flaw (AV:L) requiring user to open file (UI:R); no privileges needed; crash-only impact with zero C or I exposure.
Primary rating from Vendor (redhat).
CVSS VectorVendor: redhat
DescriptionCVE.org
A flaw was found in the Seattle FilmWorks plugin in GIMP. When processing a specially crafted SFW image file, the plugin allocates a Variable-Length Array (VLA) on the stack without integer overflow checks, causing an unbounded stack allocation. This issue leads to an application crash, resulting in a denial of service.
Threat Intelligence Overview
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.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
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.
Buffer overflow in the readstr_upto function in plug-ins/script-fu/tinyscheme/scheme.c in GIMP 2.6.12 and earlier, and p
Multiple stack-based buffer overflows in file-xwd.c in the X Window Dump (XWD) plug-in in GIMP 2.8.2 allow remote attack
In GIMP 2.8.22, there is a heap-based buffer overflow in read_channel_data in plug-ins/common/file-psp.c. Rated high sev
fits-io.c in GIMP before 2.8.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and applic
An issue in gimp_layer_invalidate_boundary of GNOME GIMP 2.10.30 allows attackers to trigger an unhandled exception via
GIMP 2.10.30 and 2.99.10 are vulnerable to Buffer Overflow. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no a
GIMP through 2.10.2 makes g_get_tmp_dir calls to establish temporary filenames, which may result in a filename that alre
Critical remote code execution vulnerability in GIMP's ICO file parser caused by an integer overflow (CWE-190) that lack
Remote code execution in GIMP 3.0.6 allows attackers to run arbitrary code by tricking a user into opening a malicious P
Remote code execution in GIMP 3.2.0-rc1 lets attackers run arbitrary code by tricking a user into opening a malicious IC
Use-after-free vulnerability in the xcf_load_image function in app/xcf/xcf-load.c in GIMP allows remote attackers to cau
Heap-based buffer overflow in GIMP's TIF file parser enables remote code execution when a user opens a crafted TIFF imag
Same weakness CWE-190 – Integer Overflow or Wraparound
View allSame technique Denial Of Service
View allVendor StatusVendor
SUSE
Severity: Moderate| Product | Status |
|---|---|
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Package Hub 15 SP7 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP7 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension 15 SP7 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP4 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP5 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP6 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Package Hub 15 SP4 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Package Hub 15 SP5 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Package Hub 15 SP6 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension 15 SP4 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension 15 SP5 | Not-Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension 15 SP6 | Not-Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.4 | Not-Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | Not-Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.6 | Not-Affected |
EUVD-2026-66425
GHSA-7m98-q7f5-f6rr
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
Exploit-DB