CVE-2025-9165 LibTIFF tiffcmp tiffcmp.c InitCCITTFax3 memory leak
A memory leak in the tiffcmp command-line tool could lead to resource exhaustion, though its security impact is disputed by maintainers.
- 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
What is CVE-2025-9165?
CVE-2025-9165 is a low-severity denial of service vulnerability in Libtiff Libtiff, published on 19 Aug 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A flaw has been found in LibTIFF 4.7.0. This affects the function _TIFFmallocExt/_TIFFCheckRealloc/TIFFHashSetNew/InitCCITTFax3 of the file tools/tiffcmp.c of the component tiffcmp. Executing manipulation can lead to memory leak. The attack is restricted to local execution. This attack is characterized by high complexity. It is indicated that the exploitability is difficult. The exploit has been published and may be used. There is ongoing doubt regarding the real existence of this vulnerability. This patch is called ed141286a37f6e5ddafb5069347ff5d587e7a4e0. It is best practice to apply a patch to resolve this issue. A researcher disputes the security impact of this issue, because "this is a memory leak on a command line tool that is about to exit anyway". In the reply the project maintainer declares this issue as "a simple 'bug' when leaving the command line tool and (...) not a security issue at all".
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-9165?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Libtiff Libtiff.
How do I fix CVE-2025-9165?
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-2025-9165 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-9165 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Libtiff Libtiff
Sources
Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2025-9165, AZL-66542, AZL-66545, BELL-CVE-2025-9165, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-9165, ECHO-0122-30ba-e03c and 5 more.