CVE-2026-53532 OpenEXR: Unhandled assert abort in HTJ2K decoder via crafted QCD marker (DoS)
Attackers can cause a denial of service by providing a crafted EXR file that triggers an unhandled assertion abort in the HTJ2K decoder.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-53532?
CVE-2026-53532 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in AcademySoftwareFoundation openexr, published on 24 Aug 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
OpenEXR is the reference implementation and specification for the EXR image format, widely used in the motion picture industry. In versions 3.4.0 through 3.4.12, a crafted HTJ2K-compressed EXR file causes an unconditional process abort in any application that calls exr_start_read() on untrusted input, resulting in denial of service. The crash is triggered by a QCD marker whose lower five bits are zero, which OpenEXR passes into the vendored OpenJPH library while constructing the codestream and evaluating its quantization delta parameters. OpenJPH uses an assertion rather than a recoverable error to validate those bits, so any invalid value calls abort() directly and cannot be intercepted by surrounding error handling, a problem compounded by OpenEXR wrapping only its internal HT header parser in error handling while leaving the later codestream read and construction calls unprotected. This issue has been resolved in version 3.4.13.
Weakness: CWE-617
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-53532?
How do I fix CVE-2026-53532?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
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-2026-53532 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-53532 exists.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-53532, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-53532, ECHO-4fbe-495c-354e, GHSA-2f85-52wj-hc3c, MINI-pqvv-5fjr-cx57, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-53532 and 3 more.