CVE-2026-25965 ImageMagick's policy bypass through path traversal allows reading restricted content despite secured policy

What is CVE-2026-25965?

CVE-2026-25965 is a high-severity path traversal 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, ImageMagick’s path security policy is enforced on the raw filename string before the filesystem resolves it. As a result, a policy rule such as /etc/* can be bypassed by a path traversal. The OS resolves the traversal and opens the sensitive file, but the policy matcher only sees the unnormalized path and therefore allows the read. This enables local file disclosure (LFI) even when policy-secure.xml is applied. Actions to prevent reading from files have been taken in versions .7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40 But it make sure writing is also not possible the following should be added to one's policy. This will also be included in ImageMagick's more secure policies by default.

Weakness: CWE-22

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-25965?

38 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-2026-25965?

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

Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.

Is CVE-2026-25965 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-25965 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-2026-1774283672, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-25965, ECHO-1a7d-afec-31fd, GHSA-8jvj-p28h-9gm7, JLSEC-2026-952, MINI-rhx3-49m9-c5p9 and 1 more.