CVE-2026-25983 is a medium severity flaw (CVSS 5.3) in ImageMagick, where a crafted MSL script triggers a heap use after free. CWE-416 describes the weakness, memory used after it has been freed. Upgrade to ImageMagick 7.1.2-15 or 6.9.13-40, the patched releases. It is not listed in CISA's KEV catalog.
What's affected
- ImageMagick 7.x before 7.1.2-15
- ImageMagick 6.9.x before 6.9.13-40
- Fixed in 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40
The advisory lists no workaround. Upgrading is the remedy it names. Many other products embed ImageMagick through libraries such as Magick++, so the version of the command line tool on your laptop may not be the one that matters.
How to check if you're exposed
Check the version of the tool on each host that converts images:
magick -version
convert -version
The second command covers older 6.x installs. Then look for bundled copies: language bindings, container images and application packages that ship their own ImageMagick. A system package manager only reports what it installed itself.
Safeguard has a free in-browser dependency scan at https://gold.safeguard.sh/scan that reads a manifest or lockfile and flags known vulnerable packages, with no repository access needed. For container images, check the package list of the image rather than the host.
What to do now
- Upgrade to 7.1.2-15 or 6.9.13-40 or later, through your distribution package or by rebuilding from the project's release.
- Rebuild and redeploy container images and applications that bundle ImageMagick, then confirm the version inside the running image.
- Find the services that accept uploads from users or fetch images from outside and note which ones call ImageMagick.
- Where upgrading must wait, limit which formats ImageMagick will decode using its policy file, which is a general hardening step and not something this advisory prescribes.
- Keep ImageMagick in your software inventory so the next advisory is a lookup, not a search.
Why it matters
According to the advisory, the operation element handler replaces and frees the image while the parser keeps reading from it. The next read in ReadBlobString touches memory that no longer belongs to the parser.
Use after free bugs are sensitive to timing and allocator behavior, which is why vendors tend to treat them with care even when the published score is moderate. The record scores this 5.3, with partial impact on availability only. Still, memory safety flaws in file parsers rarely stay small once someone studies them, so patching is cheaper than arguing about it.
The class matters for triage. Image decoders run on bytes you do not control, so any memory safety bug in a coder is reachable wherever your product accepts an image. Reachability analysis helps here: it shows whether your code actually calls the vulnerable coder, so you can order the upgrades by real exposure instead of by score alone.
Try it yourself
Click through it at your own pace, or open it full screen.
Quick check
Is this one exploited in the wild?
The record does not flag it as a CISA KEV entry, and the advisory we read does not report exploitation. Treat it as a patch-soon item, not an incident.
How do I find ImageMagick inside container images?
Scan the image, not the host. Images often carry their own copy through an OS package or a language dependency, and the host package manager will not report it.
Sources
Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.
