Actively exploited vulnerability
ImageMagick: improper access control flaw under attack
CVE-2016-3714 · ImageMagick Improper Input Validation Vulnerability
What is affected
ImageMagick is mostly run by companies, schools and public bodies, not on home computers. You are unlikely to have it yourself, but organisations that hold your data may. Breaches that start with flaws like this one are how personal data ends up leaked.
ImageMagick contains an improper input validation vulnerability that affects the EPHEMERAL, HTTPS, MVG, MSL, TEXT, SHOW, WIN, and PLT coders. This allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code via shell metacharacters in a crafted image.
What an attacker can do
This is a improper access control flaw. It lets an attacker perform actions or reach data that should be restricted to authorised users.
- How it is reached
- Needs access to the device or a file opened on it
- Access the attacker needs
- No account needed
- Does the victim have to do something?
- No, works without the victim doing anything
What to do
- At home: nothing to install. Keep your own devices updated and use a different password for every service, so that a breach at one organisation does not open your other accounts.
- If you administer ImageMagick at work: apply the vendor's fix or mitigation now and review logs for signs of compromise, because the flaw was being exploited before it was listed.
- If the product is past its support date and no fix exists, take it off the internet or retire it.
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Vendor advisories and fixes
- imagemagick.orgwww.imagemagick.org/discourse-server/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=29588#p132726
- imagemagick.orgimagemagick.org/archive/releases/
How urgent is it
CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on September 9, 2024, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by September 30, 2024, a deadline that has already passed. That deadline does not bind anyone else, but it shows how seriously the agency rates it.
The EPSS model estimates a 97% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 99.9% of all scored vulnerabilities.
Its CVSS severity score is 8.4 out of 10 (high), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.
Technical description
The (1) EPHEMERAL, (2) HTTPS, (3) MVG, (4) MSL, (5) TEXT, (6) SHOW, (7) WIN, and (8) PLT coders in ImageMagick before 6.9.3-10 and 7.x before 7.0.1-1 allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via shell metacharacters in a crafted image, aka "ImageTragick."