# CVE-2025-28162: Denial of service in n/a

> A local attacker can cause a denial of service in libpng by triggering memory leaks that lead to high memory usage and unresponsiveness.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 27 Jan 2026
- **Updated:** 29 Jan 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-28162, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-28162, ECHO-6086-bf4f-3673, GHSA-h77p-hrmm-5v85, JLSEC-2026-9, MINI-xjvg-w95w-m83j, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-28162, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-28162

## What is CVE-2025-28162?

CVE-2025-28162 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Libpng Libpng, published on 27 Jan 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Buffer Overflow vulnerability in libpng 1.6.43-1.6.46 allows a local attacker to cause a denial of service via the pngimage with AddressSanitizer (ASan), the program leaks memory in various locations, eventually leading to high memory usage and causing the program to become unresponsive

Weakness: CWE-120 (Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-28162?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Libpng Libpng.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-28162?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2025-28162 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2025-28162 exists.

## Other vulnerabilities in Libpng Libpng

- [CVE-2017-12652](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12652/): Denial of service in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2018-14550](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-14550/): Out-of-bounds write in libpng (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2026-25646](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-25646/): LIBPNG has a heap buffer overflow in png_set_quantize (high 8.3)
- [CVE-2026-33636](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-33636/): LIBPNG has ARM NEON Palette Expansion Out-of-Bounds Read on AArch64 (high 7.6)
- [CVE-2026-33416](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-33416/): LIBPNG has use-after-free via pointer aliasing in `png_set_tRNS` and `png_set_PLTE` (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-28162 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-28162 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Libpng Libpng, published on 27 Jan 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2025-28162 exists.

Affected product: Libpng Libpng. 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-2025-28162/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-28162/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-28162
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-28162
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-28162

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-28162/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.