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CVE-2017-6498 Debian CVE debrief

CVE-2017-6498 is a denial-of-service issue in ImageMagick 6.9.7 affecting TGA file handling. According to the CVE and NVD record, incorrectly formed TGA files can trigger assertion failures during image processing, causing the application to stop or become unavailable. NVD classifies the issue as medium severity and notes a local, user-interaction-dependent attack path.

Vendor
Debian
Product
CVE-2017-6498
CVSS
MEDIUM 5.5
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2017-03-06
Original CVE updated
2026-05-13
Advisory published
2017-03-06
Advisory updated
2026-05-13

Who should care

Administrators and developers who deploy ImageMagick for image conversion or thumbnailing, especially in Debian environments listed by NVD as affected. Security teams should also care where ImageMagick is exposed to untrusted user-uploaded images or batch processing workflows.

Technical summary

The NVD record describes a weakness in ImageMagick's handling of malformed TGA input. The impact is availability-only: assertion failures can lead to denial of service, with no indication in the supplied corpus of confidentiality or integrity impact. NVD lists the vector as CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H and maps the issue to CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation). The supplied reference set includes a Debian security advisory, a Debian bug tracker entry, and an upstream ImageMagick patch and pull request.

Defensive priority

Medium. The issue is not in the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog and is described as a DoS condition rather than a code-execution flaw, but it can still disrupt services that process untrusted images.

Recommended defensive actions

  • Verify whether ImageMagick 6.9.7 or Debian packages mapped by NVD are installed in your environment.
  • Apply the Debian vendor guidance referenced in the advisory and move to a fixed ImageMagick build if you have not already done so.
  • Review services that accept user-supplied TGA images, such as upload portals, document converters, and thumbnailing pipelines.
  • Use file-type validation and input filtering before handing files to ImageMagick.
  • Monitor for crashes or service interruptions during image ingestion jobs, especially where malformed images may be present.

Evidence notes

The supplied corpus identifies the issue as an ImageMagick 6.9.7 TGA parsing problem causing assertion failures and DoS. NVD lists vulnerable CPEs for ImageMagick 6.9.7 and Debian Linux 8.0/9.0, a CVSS v3.0 vector of AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H, and CWE-20. References in the corpus point to the Debian advisory (DSA-3808), Debian bug 856878, and an upstream ImageMagick patch commit and pull request, supporting remediation context.

Official resources

Published by the CVE record on 2017-03-06T02:59:00.557Z and last modified in the source corpus on 2026-05-13T00:24:29.033Z. The supplied data does not mark this CVE as a Known Exploited Vulnerability.