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PatchSiren cyber security CVE debrief

CVE-2016-7447 Opensuse CVE debrief

CVE-2016-7447 is a critical heap-based buffer overflow in GraphicsMagick’s EscapeParenthesis function. NVD rates it 9.8 with network access, no privileges, and no user interaction required, which makes it a high-priority issue for any environment that uses GraphicsMagick directly or through packaged distributions.

Vendor
Opensuse
Product
CVE-2016-7447
CVSS
CRITICAL 9.8
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2017-02-06
Original CVE updated
2026-05-13
Advisory published
2017-02-06
Advisory updated
2026-05-13

Who should care

Security and platform teams that run GraphicsMagick, maintain image-processing services, or manage affected downstream packages in Debian 8.0, openSUSE Leap 42.1, or openSUSE 13.2. Package maintainers and asset owners should also care if GraphicsMagick is bundled into another product or service.

Technical summary

The vulnerability is described as a heap-based buffer overflow in EscapeParenthesis in GraphicsMagick before 1.3.25. NVD maps the issue to CWE-119 and lists vulnerable CPEs for GraphicsMagick versions up to 1.3.24, plus downstream Linux package entries. The published CVSS v3.0 vector is AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

Defensive priority

Critical. Because the issue is remotely reachable and requires no authentication or user interaction, it should be prioritized alongside other internet-facing memory-corruption flaws in image-processing code.

Recommended defensive actions

  • Upgrade GraphicsMagick to 1.3.25 or later.
  • Apply the relevant vendor updates for affected Debian and openSUSE packages.
  • Inventory systems and applications that depend on GraphicsMagick, including bundled or embedded uses.
  • Prioritize remediation on internet-exposed image-processing or file-upload services that may process untrusted images.
  • Verify remediation by checking installed package versions against the fixed release and validating that affected CPEs are no longer present.

Evidence notes

This debrief is based on the NVD CVE record and the references listed there, including openSUSE advisories, an oss-security mailing list post, a Red Hat bug tracker entry, a SecurityFocus VDB entry, and a Debian LTS announcement. NVD lists GraphicsMagick versions through 1.3.24 as vulnerable and records the CVSS v3.0 vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H, with CWE-119 as the weakness classification.

Official resources

The CVE was published on 2017-02-06 and later modified by NVD on 2026-05-13; the reference corpus also includes 2016 vendor and mailing-list advisories. Timing in this debrief follows the CVE published date, not the later modification date.