CVE-2026-25796 ImageMagick has memory leak of watermark Image object in ReadSTEGANOImage on multiple error/early-return paths

What is CVE-2026-25796?

CVE-2026-25796 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Imagemagick Imagemagick, published on 24 Feb 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

ImageMagick is free and open-source software used for editing and manipulating digital images. Prior to versions 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40, in `ReadSTEGANOImage()` (`coders/stegano.c`), the `watermark` Image object is not freed on three early-return paths, resulting in a definite memory leak (~13.5KB+ per invocation) that can be exploited for denial of service. Versions 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40 contain a patch.

Weakness: CWE-401

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-25796?

36 open source packages ship an affected version, including Magick.NET-Q16-AnyCPU, Magick.NET-Q16-HDRI-AnyCPU and Magick.NET-Q16-HDRI-OpenMP-arm64. It affects 1 product.

Products include Imagemagick Imagemagick.

How do I fix CVE-2026-25796?

Upgrade Magick.NET-Q16-AnyCPU to 14.10.3 or later.

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-2026-25796 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-25796 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Imagemagick Imagemagick

• CVE-2019-19952 Use after free in n/a Critical 9.8
• CVE-2018-16328 Null dereference in n/a Critical 9.8
• CVE-2018-16329 Null dereference in n/a Critical 9.8
• CVE-2017-18210 Null dereference in n/a Critical 9.8
• CVE-2017-14138 Denial of service in n/a Critical 9.8

All Imagemagick Imagemagick vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as CLSA-2026-1772810452, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-25796, ECHO-8c4f-ff23-7e4e, GHSA-g2pr-qxjg-7r2w, JLSEC-2026-946, MINI-p5c5-cwqg-hc79 and 1 more.