CVE-2022-44617 Denial of service in libXpm

High 7.5 Published 6 Feb 2023 Updated 25 Mar 2025

An attacker can cause a denial of service in applications using libXpm by providing a crafted image file with zero width and large height.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2022-44617?

CVE-2022-44617 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in libXpm, published on 6 Feb 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A flaw was found in libXpm. When processing a file with width of 0 and a very large height, some parser functions will be called repeatedly and can lead to an infinite loop, resulting in a Denial of Service in the application linked to the library.

Weakness: CWE-835, CWE-20

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-44617?

It affects 1 product.

Products include X.org Libxpm.

How do I fix CVE-2022-44617?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2022-44617 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-44617 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2022-44617, AZL-13230, DEBIAN-CVE-2022-44617, GHSA-xwjc-m85h-pr32, JLSEC-2026-283, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-44617.