CVE-2025-29769: libvips Heap Overflow

Description

libvips is a demand-driven, horizontally threaded image processing library. The heifsave operation could incorrectly determine the presence of an alpha channel in an input when it was not possible to determine the colour interpretation, known internally within libvips as "multiband". There aren't many ways to create a "multiband" input, but it is possible with a well-crafted TIFF image. If a "multiband" TIFF input image had 4 channels and HEIF-based output was requested, this led to libvips creating a 3 channel HEIF image without an alpha channel but then attempting to write 4 channels of data. This caused a heap buffer overflow, which could crash the process. This vulnerability is fixed in 8.16.1.

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CVSS v3.1 Score

5.5

MEDIUM

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

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-122 CWE-122

Affected Products

Vendor	Product	Versions
libvips	libvips	< 8.16.1
debian	debian_linux	All

References

Advisories & Patches

https://github.com/libvips/libvips/commit/9ab6784f693de50b00fa535b9efbbe9d2cbf71f2 https://github.com/libvips/libvips/security/advisories/GHSA-f8r8-43hh-rghm

Exploits

https://issues.oss-fuzz.com/issues/396460413

Other References

https://github.com/libvips/libvips/pull/4392 https://github.com/libvips/libvips/pull/4394 https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/04/msg00044.html

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-29769? +

libvips is a demand-driven, horizontally threaded image processing library. The heifsave operation could incorrectly determine the presence of an alpha channel in an input when it was not possible to determine the colour interpretation, known internally within libvips as "multiband". There aren't many ways to create a "multiband" input, but it is possible with a well-crafted TIFF image. If a "multiband" TIFF input image had 4 channels and HEIF-based output was requested, this led to libvips creating a 3 channel HEIF image without an alpha channel but then attempting to write 4 channels of data. This caused a heap buffer overflow, which could crash the process. This vulnerability is fixed in 8.16.1. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.5 (MEDIUM).

How severe is CVE-2025-29769? +

CVE-2025-29769 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.5 out of 10, rated MEDIUM. This is a medium-severity vulnerability that should be remediated as part of regular maintenance.

What products are affected by CVE-2025-29769? +

CVE-2025-29769 affects products from debian, libvips, specifically: debian_linux, libvips. Check the affected products table above for specific version ranges.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2025-29769? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

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