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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 30 Sep 2024.
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system · Canonical

CVE-2016-3714

HIGH · 8.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2016-05-05
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 6.9.3-9 or later.
See remediation →
99/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild High EPSS Public exploit No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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
The (1) EPHEMERAL, (2) HTTPS, (3) MVG, (4) MSL, (5) TEXT, (6) SHOW, (7) WIN, and (8) PLT coders in ImageMagick before 6.9.3-10 and 7.x before 7.0.1-1 allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via shell metacharacters in a crafted image, aka "ImageTragick."

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

ImageMagick contains multiple coders (EPHEMERAL, HTTPS, MVG, MSL, TEXT, SHOW, WIN, PLT) that fail to properly sanitize shell metacharacters in image file processing, allowing remote attackers to inject and execute arbitrary shell commands via specially crafted image files. This command injection vulnerability is exploited by embedding shell commands within image metadata or format-specific directives that get passed to the underlying system shell.

MitigationUpgrade ImageMagick to version 6.9.3-10 or later (6.x series) or 7.0.1-1 or later (7.x series). As a secondary control, disable or restrict the vulnerable coders (particularly MVG and MSL) in the ImageMagick policy.xml configuration file.

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
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 12.04= 14.04= 15.10= 16.04
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 8.0= 9.0
ImagemagickApplication
Affected:<= 6.9.3-9= 7.0.0-0= 7.0.1-0
LeapOperating system
Affected:= 42.1
OpensuseOperating system
Affected:= 13.2
Suse Linux Enterprise ServerOperating system
Affected:= 12

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 ImageMagick version
    Run `convert -version` or `identify -version` to retrieve the installed version number
    Affected if Version is 6.9.3-9 or lower in the 6.x branch, or exactly 7.0.0-0 or 7.0.1-0 in the 7.x branch
  2. Confirm ImageMagick package installation
    Check package manager output: on Debian/Ubuntu use `dpkg -l | grep imagemagick`, on SUSE/openSUSE use `rpm -qi ImageMagick`
    Affected if Package version matches the affected version ranges listed in the CVE
  3. Locate and inspect policy.xml configuration
    Find policy.xml in the ImageMagick configuration directory (commonly /etc/ImageMagick/ or /usr/etc/) and examine its content for coder restrictions
    Affected if The eight coders (EPHEMERAL, HTTPS, MVG, MSL, TEXT, SHOW, WIN, PLT) are not explicitly disabled or restricted in the policy file
  4. Verify vulnerable coders are available
    Run `convert -list configure | grep DELEGATES` or check coder presence with `identify -list format` to see which coders are compiled in
    Affected if Any of the eight vulnerable coders are present and enabled in the ImageMagick build

Your environment is affected if ImageMagick is installed at a vulnerable version AND the eight coders (EPHEMERAL, HTTPS, MVG, MSL, TEXT, SHOW, WIN, PLT) are not disabled in policy.xml or otherwise restricted.

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 6.9.3-9
Vendor patch git.imagemagick.org →
Interim mitigation

Upgrade ImageMagick to version 6.9.3-10 or later (6.x series) or 7.0.1-1 or later (7.x series). As a secondary control, disable or restrict the vulnerable coders (particularly MVG and MSL) in the ImageMagick policy.xml configuration file.

Recommended fix High confidence

ImageMagick 6.9.3-10+ or 7.0.1-1+

  1. Upgrade ImageMagick to version 6.9.3-10 or later, or 7.0.1-1 or later
  2. On Ubuntu/Debian: Run 'apt-get update && apt-get install imagemagick'
  3. On openSUSE/SUSE: Run 'zypper update ImageMagick'
  4. Verify the upgrade was successful by running 'convert -version' and checking the version number
  5. Alternatively, apply vendor-provided security patches for your distribution if immediate upgrade is not feasible
Caveat Standard version upgrade; test image processing workflows after applying the update to ensure compatibility

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

Fix this in Ubuntu Linux Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,480
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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-2016-3714 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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