# CVE-2017-16232: Denial of service in n/a

> Attackers can cause denial of service via memory leaks in LibTIFF, though third parties could not reproduce the issue.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 17 Mar 2019
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2017-16232, DEBIAN-CVE-2017-16232, GHSA-7vph-w5xf-wrvp, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2017-16232, UBUNTU-CVE-2017-16232

## What is CVE-2017-16232?

CVE-2017-16232 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Libtiff Libtiff, published on 17 Mar 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

LibTIFF 4.0.8 has multiple memory leak vulnerabilities, which allow attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption), as demonstrated by tif_open.c, tif_lzw.c, and tif_aux.c. NOTE: Third parties were unable to reproduce the issue

Weakness: CWE-772 (Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-16232?

It affects 5 products.


Products: Libtiff Libtiff, Opensuse Leap, Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop, Suse Linux Enterprise Server, Suse Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-16232?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2017-16232 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-16232 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Libtiff Libtiff

- [CVE-2004-1308](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2004-1308/): Integer overflow in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2004-0929](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2004-0929/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2025-61144](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-61144/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2016-9533](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-9533/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2016-9534](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-9534/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-16232 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-16232 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Libtiff Libtiff, published on 17 Mar 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-16232 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Libtiff Libtiff. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-16232/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-16232/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-16232
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-16232
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-16232

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-16232/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.