CVE-2017-11638
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 · uneditedGraphicsMagick 1.3.26 has a segmentation violation in the WriteMAPImage() function in coders/map.c when processing a non-colormapped image, a different vulnerability than CVE-2017-11642.
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 confidenceGraphicsMagick 1.3.26 contains a segmentation fault vulnerability in the WriteMAPImage() function in coders/map.c. The function crashes when processing a non-colormapped image, likely due to improper handling of NULL or uninitialized colormap data structures, causing a denial of service through application termination.
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= 1.3.26CVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm GraphicsMagick installationRun `gm version` or `graphicsmagick --version` to identify if GraphicsMagick is installed and obtain the version numberAffected if The installed version is exactly 1.3.26
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Verify the MAP coder module existsCheck for the presence of the map coder module in the GraphicsMagick coders directory, typically found in the installation path under coders/ or as a loadable module named mapAffected if The MAP coder (map.c) is compiled and available in the GraphicsMagick installation
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Test MAP file write capabilityAttempt to write a simple image to MAP format using a non-colormapped image, for example: `gm convert input.png -map-type MAP output.map` or verify MAP support via `gm identify -list format` showing MAP as an available formatAffected if MAP file writing is enabled and functional in the GraphicsMagick installation
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Confirm image type handlingInspect the image to be processed: use `gm identify -verbose imagefile` to determine if the image lacks a colormap (e.g., truecolor images without an indexed color palette)Affected if A non-colormapped image (such as a truecolor or grayscale image without an indexed palette) is processed with MAP file output enabled
You are affected if GraphicsMagick version 1.3.26 is installed, the MAP coder is available, and a non-colormapped image is processed using WriteMAPImage() to produce a MAP format output, triggering the NULL pointer dereference crash.
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 dataUpdate GraphicsMagick to a patched version beyond 1.3.26 that addresses this vulnerability, or disable/encode MAP file processing in untrusted environments until a patch is available.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-11638 — 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-2017-11638 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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