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LibtiffApplication · Remotesensing

CVE-2013-1960

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2013-07-03
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 4.0.3 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Heap-based buffer overflow in the t2p_process_jpeg_strip function in tiff2pdf in libtiff 4.0.3 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) and possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted TIFF image file.

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 confidence

Heap-based buffer overflow in the t2p_process_jpeg_strip function within tiff2pdf (part of libtiff 4.0.3 and earlier) allows processing of specially crafted TIFF image files to overwrite heap memory, potentially enabling arbitrary code execution or denial of service via crash.

MitigationUpgrade libtiff to a version newer than 4.0.3 that contains the patched t2p_process_jpeg_strip function; alternatively, apply the vendor-supplied patch to the vulnerable function and rebuild. Validate all TIFF input files before processing if upgrading is not immediately feasible.

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
LibtiffApplication
Affected:<= 4.0.3= 3.4= 3.5.1= 3.5.2= 3.5.3= 3.5.4= 3.5.5= 3.5.6= 3.5.7= 3.6.0= 3.6.1= 3.7.0

CVSS 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
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed libtiff version
    Run 'tiffinfo -version' or 'tifftopnm -version' to display the libtiff version, or check the package manager (dpkg -l libtiff* or rpm -qa | grep tiff)
    Affected if Version is 4.0.3 or earlier, or matches 3.4, 3.5.1-3.5.7, 3.6.0, 3.6.1, or 3.7.0
  2. Verify tiff2pdf utility presence
    Run 'which tiff2pdf' or 'tiff2pdf -h' to confirm the tool is installed on the system
    Affected if tiff2pdf is available and the libtiff version is vulnerable as above
  3. Confirm t2p_process_jpeg_strip function usage
    Inspect the TIFF processing workflow: tiff2pdf invokes the t2p_process_jpeg_strip function when converting JPEG-in-TIFF files to PDF; any use of 'tiff2pdf input.tiff -o output.pdf' where input.tiff contains JPEG strips triggers the vulnerable code path
    Affected if You use tiff2pdf to convert TIFF images containing JPEG compression in strip configuration to PDF

You are affected if libtiff version is 4.0.3 or earlier (including 3.4, 3.5.x through 3.7.0) and you use tiff2pdf to process TIFF files with JPEG strip compression.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 4.0.3
Interim mitigation

Upgrade libtiff to a version newer than 4.0.3 that contains the patched t2p_process_jpeg_strip function; alternatively, apply the vendor-supplied patch to the vulnerable function and rebuild. Validate all TIFF input files before processing if upgrading is not immediately feasible.

Recommended fix High confidence

libtiff 4.0.4 or later

  1. Check current installed version of libtiff (e.g., `rpm -q libtiff` or `dpkg -l libtiff`)
  2. Verify tiff2pdf tool is present on the system (e.g., `which tiff2pdf` or `tiff2pdf -h`)
  3. Update libtiff package through system package manager: for RHEL/CentOS use `yum update libtiff` or `dnf update libtiff`, for Debian/Ubuntu use `apt-get update && apt-get install libtiff*`, for Fedora use `dnf update libtiff`
  4. If using openSUSE, use `zypper update libtiff4`
  5. After update, verify the new version is installed: `rpm -q libtiff` or `dpkg -l libtiff`
  6. Confirm the t2p_process_jpeg_strip function vulnerability is addressed by testing with the fixed version

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Libtiff Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
21.0 hours of engineering $3,680
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2013-1960 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data