CVE-2022-2521 Use after free in libtiff

What is CVE-2022-2521?

CVE-2022-2521 is a medium-severity use after free vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 31 Aug 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

Official description

It was found in libtiff 4.4.0rc1 that there is an invalid pointer free operation in TIFFClose() at tif_close.c:131 called by tiffcrop.c:2522 that can cause a program crash and denial of service while processing crafted input.

Weakness: CWE-763

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-2521?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Libtiff Libtiff.

How do I fix CVE-2022-2521?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.

Is CVE-2022-2521 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-2521 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

• CVE-2015-3306 ProFTPD Improper Access Control Exploited Critical 10.0
• CVE-2025-49113 RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data Exploited Critical 9.9
• CVE-2026-24061 GNU InetUtils Argument Injection Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2025-39682 Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2024-9680 Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free Exploited Critical 9.8

All Debian Debian Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2022-2521, DEBIAN-CVE-2022-2521, GHSA-42g8-vhhw-vw3f.