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CVE-2026-112393: Pillow: Heap buffer overflow in _tiffWriteProc when saving TIFF to BytesIO

October 21, 2026

============================================================================
Heap buffer overflow in _tiffWriteProc when saving TIFF to BytesIO
Location: src/libImaging/TiffDecode.c:94  in _tiffWriteProc()
Commit:   a707c6b21c313880d0771e54965d142dd42358b6
============================================================================

Pillow can write attacker-chosen data past the end of a heap buffer when it saves a TIFF image to an in-memory destination such as io.BytesIO rather than to a file. The same code also copies leftover heap memory from the process into the saved file. Anyone who can supply an image to a service that opens it and re-saves it as TIFF this way can trigger this with default settings. The attached reproducer crashes the process, and the overflow could potentially be developed further, but code execution is not demonstrated here.

The bug is in _tiffWriteProc in src/libImaging/TiffDecode.c. This is the write callback for the in-memory sink that Pillow gives libtiff whenever the save target has no fileno(). While writing the directory, libtiff seeks past the current end of data and writes tag values there. _tiffWriteProc sizes its realloc() from state->size + size instead of from the write position state->loc. As a result, the first out-of-line tag value written after that seek can run past the allocation by up to the size of the directory: 12 bytes per entry, 126 bytes in the minimal case, and 2384 bytes observed with a 331-entry directory. The overflowing bytes are the tail of a tag value taken from the uploaded file.

No save options are needed, because compression and tags are inherited from the source image. The overflow does require an attacker-sized out-of-line tag to reach libtiff. That happens when the opened TIFF is saved directly (ImageDescription, DocumentName or XMP), or through an embedded ICC profile, which survives copy() in im.info. The bytes libtiff skips for alignment are never initialised, so any compressed TIFF over 64 KiB written this way also leaks one stale heap byte per padding hole. That leak needs no crafted tag.

The attached reproducer builds a 131 KB PackBits TIFF and runs Image.open(...).save(io.BytesIO(), "TIFF"). Saving the same image to a file path succeeds, but the BytesIO save aborts with glibc’s malloc(): corrupted top size. A second part of the script shows uninitialised heap bytes at the padding offsets of a BytesIO save that are zero in the file save. Saves to real files are unaffected. The defect dates to e782fe721e01 (2013) and has been present since Pillow 2.0.0.

References

  • github.com/advisories/GHSA-332p-7hrc-92wf
  • github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/commit/11582e5ffbdceb973d5ee593f3105af5a9852b40
  • github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/releases/tag/13.0.0
  • github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/security/advisories/GHSA-332p-7hrc-92wf
  • nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-112393

Code Behaviors & Features

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Affected versions

All versions starting from 2.0.0 before 13.0.0

Fixed versions

  • 13.0.0

Solution

Upgrade to version 13.0.0 or above.

Impact 8.1 HIGH

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

Learn more about CVSS

Weakness

  • CWE-122: Heap-based Buffer Overflow

Source file

pypi/Pillow/CVE-2026-112393.yml

Spotted a mistake? Edit the file on GitLab.

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