CVE-2025-15514 Ollama Multi-Modal Model Image Processing NULL Pointer Dereference
Remote attackers can crash the Ollama service by sending malformed base64 image data, causing a denial of service for all users.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-15514?
CVE-2025-15514 is a high-severity vulnerability in Ollama, published on 12 Jan 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Ollama 0.11.5-rc0 through current version 0.13.5 contain a null pointer dereference vulnerability in the multi-modal model image processing functionality. When processing base64-encoded image data via the /api/chat endpoint, the application fails to validate that the decoded data represents valid media before passing it to the mtmd_helper_bitmap_init_from_buf function. This function can return NULL for malformed input, but the code does not check this return value before dereferencing the pointer in subsequent operations. A remote attacker can exploit this by sending specially crafted base64 image data that decodes to invalid media, causing a segmentation fault and crashing the runner process. This results in a denial of service condition where the model becomes unavailable to all users until the service is restarted.
Weakness: CWE-395
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-15514?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Ollama Ollama.
How do I fix CVE-2025-15514?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Is CVE-2025-15514 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2025-15514 exists.
Other vulnerabilities in Ollama
- CVE-2025-63389 Ollama Platform has missing authentication enabling attackers to perform model management operations
- CVE-2024-45436 Ollama can extract members of a ZIP archive outside of the parent directory
- CVE-2026-7482 Ollama heap out-of-bounds read in GGUF tensor parsing leaks server process memory to unauthenticated remote attackers
- CVE-2024-37032 Ollama does not validate the format of the digest (sha256 with 64 hex digits)
- CVE-2024-39720 Ollama Out-of-bounds Read
Sources
Also known as GHSA-6q56-mrmc-cph4, MINI-wg3g-7j27-5v6x.