CVE-2017-15769
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 · uneditedIrfanView 4.50 - 64bit allows attackers to cause a denial of service or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted .dds file, related to "Read Access Violation starting at FORMATS!ReadBLP_W+0x0000000000001b22."
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 confidenceIrfanView 4.50 64-bit contains a memory corruption vulnerability when parsing specially crafted DDS (DirectDraw Surface) image files. The vulnerability manifests as a read access violation in the FORMATS!ReadBLP_W function, indicating insufficient bounds checking during DDS/BLP file parsing. This can cause application crashes (denial of service) and may potentially allow arbitrary code execution.
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= 4.50CVSS 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
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/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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Verify IrfanView installationCheck for IrfanView installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\IrfanView or C:\Program Files (x86)\IrfanView) and locate i_view64.exeAffected if IrfanView 64-bit is installed on the system
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Confirm installed versionRight-click i_view64.exe, select Properties, then check the File Version tab, or run: 'C:\Program Files\IrfanView\i_view64.exe' /? 2>&1 | findstr /i versionAffected if The installed version is exactly 4.50
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Check if DDS plugin is loadedVerify that the IrfanView plugins directory (typically C:\Program Files\IrfanView\Plugins) contains formats.dll or similar DDS-handling plugin files used for parsing DDS/BLP imagesAffected if DDS/BLP format support plugin (formats.dll) is present and loaded by IrfanView
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Identify DDS files in environmentSearch for .dds or .blp files on the system using: Get-ChildItem -Path C:\ -Recurse -Include *.dds,*.blp -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object -First 10 FullNameAffected if User has access to or stores DDS/BLP image files that could be opened with IrfanView
The environment is affected if IrfanView 4.50 64-bit is installed with DDS/BLP plugin support and users can open specially crafted DDS image files, leading to memory corruption in the ReadBLP_W function.
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 IrfanView to the latest version. Avoid opening DDS files from untrusted sources until the vendor patch is applied. Consider using sandboxed environments for viewing untrusted image files.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,176.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-15769 — 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-2017-15769 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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- 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
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