CVE-2005-2452
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedlibtiff up to 3.7.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) via a TIFF image header with a zero "YCbCr subsampling" value, which causes a divide-by-zero error in (1) tif_strip.c and (2) tif_tile.c, a different vulnerability than CVE-2004-0804.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidencelibtiff versions up to 3.7.0 contain a divide-by-zero vulnerability when processing TIFF images with a zero YCbCr subsampling value in the image header. This triggers in tif_strip.c and tif_tile.c during strip/tile calculations, causing the application to crash. The vulnerability can be triggered remotely by tricking a user or automated system into processing a specially crafted TIFF image.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 3.5.5= 3.5.7= 3.6.1CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check installed libtiff versionRun 'tiffinfo -version' or check the library file version with 'ldd --version' or look for libtiff in package management with 'dpkg -l libtiff*' or 'rpm -q libtiff'Affected if The installed version matches 3.5.5, 3.5.7, or 3.6.1, or is any version up to and including 3.7.0 (the summary indicates versions up to 3.7.0 are affected)
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Identify applications using libtiffRun 'ldconfig -p | grep tiff' to list programs linked against libtiff, or search for binaries that link to libtiff with 'ldd /path/to/binary | grep tiff'Affected if Any application that processes TIFF images is present and linked against a vulnerable libtiff version
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Determine if applications process untrusted TIFF inputReview application documentation or source code to see if they accept TIFF files from untrusted sources (user uploads, network input, email attachments, etc.)Affected if The system runs software that accepts or processes TIFF files from untrusted sources such as user uploads, remote requests, or automated batch processing of untrusted images
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Test for TIFF processing capabilityCheck if ImageMagick (which uses libtiff), GIMP, web browsers, or other image viewers that handle TIFF are installed and configured to process TIFF filesAffected if Image viewing or processing tools that handle TIFF format are installed and used with untrusted image files
You are affected if a vulnerable libtiff version (3.5.5, 3.5.7, 3.6.1, or any version up to 3.7.0) is installed and any application on the system processes TIFF images from untrusted sources.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade libtiff to version 3.7.1 or later, which contains the patch for this vulnerability. Additionally, implement input validation on TIFF files to reject images with invalid or zero subsampling values before passing them to the library.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2005-2452 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2005-2452 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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