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Image Info For PerlApplication · Image Info Project

CVE-2016-9181

HIGH · 7.1 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-12-22
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
74/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
No privileges

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
perl-Image-Info: When parsing an SVG file, external entity expansion (XXE) was not disabled. An attacker could craft an SVG file which, when processed by an application using perl-Image-Info, could cause denial of service or, potentially, information disclosure.

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 · moderate confidence

perl-Image-Info does not disable external entity expansion when parsing SVG files, allowing XXE (XML External Entity) attacks. A specially crafted SVG file could cause denial of service or potentially disclose sensitive information from the system processing the file.

MitigationDisable external entity expansion in the XML parser used by perl-Image-Info when processing SVG files, or use a parser configuration that prevents XXE by default.

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
Image Info For PerlApplication
Affected:= 1.16= 1.30

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
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/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. Check if Image::Info Perl module is installed
    Run 'perl -MImage::Info -e 'print $Image::Info::VERSION'' or list installed Perl modules via 'cpan -l' or 'perldoc perllocal'
    Affected if Image::Info module is present on the system
  2. Determine the installed version of Image::Info
    Compare the version output from the previous check against the affected versions 1.16 and 1.30
    Affected if Installed version matches exactly 1.16 or 1.30
  3. Identify if SVG files are processed using Image::Info
    Search application code for calls to Image::Info::image_info() handling .svg files, or review configuration/logs for SVG processing workflows
    Affected if Image::Info is used to parse SVG files in any application or script

System is affected if Image::Info version 1.16 or 1.30 is installed and used to process SVG files, as the XXE vulnerability requires the SVG parsing feature to be exercised.

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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Disable external entity expansion in the XML parser used by perl-Image-Info when processing SVG files, or use a parser configuration that prevents XXE by default.

Fix this in Image Info For Perl Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
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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-2016-9181 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