# 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.

- **Severity:** Low 2.0 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P`)
- **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:** 19 Aug 2025
- **Updated:** 1 Oct 2025
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2025-9165, AZL-66542, AZL-66545, BELL-CVE-2025-9165, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-9165, ECHO-0122-30ba-e03c, GHSA-64vg-6m9q-6vr3, MINI-8g47-qprw-7v97, OESA-2025-2190, OESA-2025-2191, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-9165

## 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".

Weakness: CWE-404 (Improper Resource Shutdown or Release), CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-9165?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Libtiff Libtiff.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-9165?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## 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

- [CVE-2004-1308](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2004-1308/): Integer overflow in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2004-0929](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2004-0929/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2025-61144](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-61144/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2016-9533](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-9533/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2016-9534](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-9534/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-9165 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-9165 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Libtiff Libtiff. 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-2025-9165/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-9165/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-9165
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-9165
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-9165

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-9165/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.