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CVE-2016-9298 Imagemagick CVE debrief

CVE-2016-9298 is a heap overflow in ImageMagick’s WaveletDenoiseImage path that can lead to a denial of service crash when a crafted image is processed. The public CVE record and linked patch references show the issue was fixed in ImageMagick 6.9.6-4 and 7.0.3-6, with affected versions including 6.9.6-3 and earlier plus 7.x builds up through 7.0.3-5.

Vendor
Imagemagick
Product
CVE-2016-9298
CVSS
MEDIUM 5.5
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2017-01-27
Original CVE updated
2026-05-13
Advisory published
2017-01-27
Advisory updated
2026-05-13

Who should care

Teams that process untrusted images with ImageMagick, especially packaged deployments, web services, converters, thumbnailers, and downstream distributors that may still ship affected 6.x or 7.x builds.

Technical summary

The vulnerability is classified as CWE-119 (improper restriction of operations within the bounds of a memory buffer). NVD’s CVSS 3.0 vector is AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H, which indicates availability impact with user interaction required and no confidentiality or integrity impact recorded. The issue is tied to MagickCore/fx.c in WaveletDenoiseImage and is documented in the NVD entry, ImageMagick issue/commit references, and oss-security advisories.

Defensive priority

Medium. This is a crash-oriented memory corruption bug rather than a confirmed code-execution issue in the supplied corpus, but it affects a widely used image-processing library and should be patched in any environment handling external image files.

Recommended defensive actions

  • Upgrade ImageMagick to a fixed release: 6.9.6-4 or later for the 6.x line, or 7.0.3-6 or later for the 7.x line.
  • Verify downstream vendor packages and containers actually include the fix; do not assume the upstream version string alone is sufficient.
  • Treat untrusted image input as risky: isolate image conversion jobs, limit process privileges, and use service-level sandboxing where practical.
  • If immediate upgrade is not possible, backport the referenced upstream fix into the affected package build.
  • Add monitoring for abnormal crashes in image-processing workflows and review any repeated failures involving crafted or user-supplied images.
  • Inventory deployed ImageMagick versions across servers, CI pipelines, and application dependencies to identify any still-affected instances.

Evidence notes

This debrief is based on the official CVE/NVD record and its linked references only. The CVE was published on 2017-01-27; the 2026 modified date is not treated as the disclosure date. Supporting references include oss-security mailing list posts from November 2016, the ImageMagick GitHub commit and issue link, and a Gentoo advisory. The supplied NVD vector suggests local/user-interaction conditions even though the summary text says remote attackers, so exposure should be evaluated in the context of how your system ingests and processes images.

Official resources

Publicly disclosed in the CVE record published on 2017-01-27, with patch/advisory references appearing in November 2016. Use the CVE published date for timing context; do not treat the later 2026 modified timestamp as disclosure timing.