# CVE-2018-16132: Denial of service in n/a

> Attackers can crash iOS devices by sending large images to Signal users, causing memory exhaustion and forced restarts.

- **Severity:** High 8.6 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/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:** No
- **Published:** 29 Aug 2018
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-qqwm-p976-w7mm

## What is CVE-2018-16132?

CVE-2018-16132 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 29 Aug 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The image rendering component (createGenericPreview) of the Open Whisper Signal app through 2.29.0 for iOS fails to check for unreasonably large images before manipulating received images. This allows for a large image sent to a user to exhaust all available memory when the image is displayed, resulting in a forced restart of the device.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-16132?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Signal Signal.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-16132?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-16132 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-16132 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-16132 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2022-28345](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-28345/): Other in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2018-9840](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-9840/): Security feature bypass in n/a (medium 6.8)
- [CVE-2025-5715](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-5715/): Signal App Biometric Authentication missing critical step in authentication (low 1.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-16132 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-16132 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 29 Aug 2018. 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-2018-16132 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. 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-2018-16132/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-16132/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-16132
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-16132
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-16132

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-16132/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.