# CVE-2026-90681: Matthias-Wandel jhead EXIF Parsing exif.c Get16u out-of-bounds

> A local attacker can trigger an out-of-bounds read in jhead's EXIF parser, potentially causing a crash or leaking memory contents.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.8 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/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:** No
- **Published:** 14 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 14 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2026-90681, GHSA-wq73-q6g3-jfvc, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-90681

## What is CVE-2026-90681?

CVE-2026-90681 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Matthias-Wandel jhead, published on 14 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A weakness has been identified in Matthias-Wandel jhead up to 3.3. This affects the function Get16u of the file exif.c of the component EXIF Parsing. This manipulation causes out-of-bounds read. The attack requires local access. The exploit has been made available to the public and could be used for attacks. The project was informed of the problem early through an issue report but has not responded yet.

Weakness: CWE-125 (Out-of-bounds Read), CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-90681?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-90681?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-90681 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-90681 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-90681 exists.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-90681 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-90681 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Matthias-Wandel jhead, published on 14 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-90681 exists.

Affected product: Matthias-Wandel jhead. 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-2026-90681/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-90681/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-90681
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-90681
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-90681

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-90681/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.