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GHSA-gg2r-wvfm-q9rx BIT-pillow-2026-112892 CVE-2026-112892

Pillow: MSP RLE decoder expands a tiny file into unbounded memory

High PyPI
Severity
0.0 / 10
High · CVSS 4.0
Exploit chance (EPSS)
0.50%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 43.05% of scored vulnerabilities.
Known exploited
No
Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness
CWE-409 Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification)
Fix
13.0.0
Upgrade pillow to this version or later

Description

Summary

The MSP RLE decoder expands run-length data into an in-memory buffer with no cap tied to the declared image size. A small file that passes the pixel-count check can force hundreds of megabytes or more of allocation when the application loads pixels.

Details

The MSP decoder writes each run into an unbounded io.BytesIO and can expand roughly 85x per run:

  • src/PIL/MspImagePlugin.py:144-146

Impact

Memory-exhaustion denial of service from a tiny crafted image in any application that loads pixels. The expansion is decoupled from the declared pixel count, so MAX_IMAGE_PIXELS does not bound it.

Affected versions

PyPI

PackageVulnerableFixed in
pillow
>= 4.1.0, < 13.0.0
13.0.0

How to fix

Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.

pillow PyPI → 13.0.0

pip
pip install --upgrade "pillow>=13.0.0"
poetry
poetry add "pillow>=13.0.0"
uv
uv add "pillow>=13.0.0"

Severity breakdown

CVSS 4.0 0.0

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Attack requirements
None
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality (vulnerable system)
None
Integrity (vulnerable system)
None
Availability (vulnerable system)
High
Confidentiality (subsequent systems)
None
Integrity (subsequent systems)
None
Availability (subsequent systems)
None

CVSS 3.1 7.5

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

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Weakness

CWE-409: Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification)

The product does not handle or incorrectly handles a compressed input with a very high compression ratio that produces a large output.

References

Timeline

  1. Published
  2. Last updated by the source
  3. Latest EPSS score
AdvisorySeverityWhy it's related
PYSEC-2023-175
Pillow versions before v10.0.1 bundled libwebp binaries in wheels that are vulnerable to CVE-2023-5129 (previously CVE-2023-4863).
High Known exploited Also affects pillow
GHSA-j7hp-h8jx-5ppr
libwebp: OOB write in BuildHuffmanTable
High Known exploited Also affects pillow
GHSA-78g4-xqwv-q3g8
Pillow: Bundled libopenjp2 2.5.4 in all wheels since 11.1.0 carries OSV-2025-219 heap-buffer-overflow write reachable from Image.open().load()
High Also affects pillow
GHSA-654x-cwwv-5j9c
Pillow: Arrow export leaks stale heap memory when PILLOW_ALIGNMENT > 1
Medium Also affects pillow
GHSA-xvh5-g6gv-559v
Pillow: Memory disclosure and segfault in libtiff encoder via crafted TIFF tags
High Also affects pillow
GHSA-g7cr-3p24-7wf7
Pillow: Heap buffer overflow writing JPEG comment after ICC profile fills buffer
High Also affects pillow
GHSA-9v9v-9qvf-h2hj
Pillow: Heap over-read in WMF/EMF rendering via 16-bit dimension truncation (Windows builds)
High Also affects pillow
GHSA-g4qv-2jxx-769h
Pillow: PNG eXIf chunk makes EXIF parsing run in quadratic time
Medium Also affects pillow
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