Description

Null pointer dereference issue in the image codec module. Impact: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may affect availability.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "4.0",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-17T09:17:31.290Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-17T09:17:31.290Z",
  "executiveSummary": "A null pointer dereference vulnerability has been identified within the image codec module, posing a direct threat to system availability. Successful exploitation of this flaw allows an unauthenticated adversary to trigger an application crash, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) state for the affected service or component.\nThe vulnerability resides specifically in the image processing routines responsible for parsing and decoding image bitstreams. When malicious or malformed image data is supplied, the codec module fails to properly validate memory allocation pointers or handle error conditions during the decoding lifecycle. Consequently, the execution flow attempts to read or write to a null memory address.\nThe risk implications are centered on service disruption, as recurrent crashes can severely impact system reliability and availability, potentially cascading to dependent services within the execution environment. Exploitation prerequisites generally involve supplying a crafted payload to the vulnerable parser, requiring the target system to process the malicious input data via the image codec module.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability is fundamentally rooted in inadequate input validation and missing error-handling logic within the image codec module. During the parsing of malformed image files or streams, the internal decoding routines allocate internal structures and memory buffers dynamically. If the input stream contains corrupted header metadata, unexpected dimensions, or truncated data chunks, internal allocation functions may fail and return a null pointer instead of a valid memory reference.\nDue to the absence of defensive pointer checks following the allocation or state-transition phases, the code proceeds to dereference the returned null pointer to store pixel data, update codec states, or read subsequent parsing parameters. This illicit memory access operation triggers an immediate segmentation fault or access violation exception, terminating the host process abruptly.\nThe attack flow proceeds as follows: First, an attacker crafts a malicious image file engineered with specific structural anomalies designed to bypass initial sanity checks while forcing a failure state deep within the decoder logic. Second, the attacker delivers this payload to the application, leveraging any interface that passes user-supplied image data into the vulnerable image codec module. Third, the application initiates the decoding process, invoking the susceptible parsing functions. Fourth, the missing null check is encountered during the handling of the corrupted input, leading directly to the null pointer dereference.\nBecause the vulnerability manifests during the processing of untrusted input data, network exposure depends on how the image codec module is integrated into the broader application architecture. If exposed via a web interface, API endpoint, or file upload mechanism, remote attackers can trigger the condition without prior authentication or elevated privileges. Post-exploitation impact is strictly limited to availability, as the resulting exception halts execution and prevents further processing, fulfilling a classic denial of service vector without yielding arbitrary code execution or unauthorized data access."
}