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PatchSiren cyber security CVE debrief

CVE-2016-6911 Libgd CVE debrief

CVE-2016-6911 is a medium-severity memory-safety issue in libgd’s TIFF handling. According to the NVD description, the dynamicGetbuf function in libgd before 2.2.4 can be reached with a crafted TIFF image and may trigger an out-of-bounds read, resulting in denial of service.

Vendor
Libgd
Product
Unknown
CVSS
MEDIUM 5.5
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2017-01-26
Original CVE updated
2026-05-13
Advisory published
2017-01-26
Advisory updated
2026-05-13

Who should care

Administrators and developers who ship or embed libgd, especially products that accept or process untrusted TIFF images. Systems running libgd 2.2.3 or earlier are in scope based on the NVD CPE range.

Technical summary

NVD identifies CWE-125 (out-of-bounds read) and maps the affected range to libgd versions through 2.2.3. The issue is tied to TIFF image parsing in dynamicGetbuf. The practical impact described in the record is denial of service.

Defensive priority

Medium. This is a denial-of-service issue rather than a code-execution finding, but it affects image parsing of untrusted content and should be remediated in any exposed service or application.

Recommended defensive actions

  • Upgrade libgd to 2.2.4 or later.
  • Inventory products and services that bundle or dynamically link against libgd.
  • Treat untrusted TIFF uploads or image feeds as potentially crash-inducing until the library is updated.
  • Use the libgd changelog, commit, and vendor advisories to confirm the fix is present in your deployed build.

Evidence notes

The NVD record describes a crafted-TIFF-triggered out-of-bounds read in dynamicGetbuf and assigns CWE-125 with a medium CVSS score. The NVD CPE range marks libgd versions up to 2.2.3 as vulnerable. The supplied references include the libgd changelog, a patch commit, a pull request, and a Debian security advisory, all consistent with a fix in libgd 2.2.4.

Sources and references

Verified primary and authoritative sources

  • CVE-2016-6911 CVE Program record

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-6911

    CVE Program - Official CVE Program record with source-provided CVE metadata.

  • CVE-2016-6911 NVD vulnerability detail

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-6911

    NIST National Vulnerability Database - Official NIST NVD detail page and source-specific vulnerability assessment.

Supplemental references

Methodology and review provenance

AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.