dbcve.org
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system · Canonical

CVE-2017-17881

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-12-27
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
72/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable 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
In ImageMagick 7.0.7-12 Q16, a memory leak vulnerability was found in the function ReadMATImage in coders/mat.c, which allows attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted MAT 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

A memory leak exists in ImageMagick 7.0.7-12 Q16 within the ReadMATImage function in coders/mat.c. When processing a crafted MAT (MATLAB) image file, memory is allocated during parsing but not properly freed, leading to memory exhaustion and denial of service.

MitigationUpdate ImageMagick to a version beyond 7.0.7-12 that contains the patch, or disable MAT file format support in ImageMagick if MAT files are not required for processing.

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:= 14.04= 16.04= 17.10= 18.04
ImagemagickApplication
Affected:= 7.0.7-12

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

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/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 installed ImageMagick version
    Run 'convert -version' or 'identify -version' and look for the version number in the output
    Affected if The version shown is exactly 7.0.7-12
  2. Verify MAT coder module availability
    Run 'identify -list configure' and look for 'DELEGATES' or 'CODERS' sections, or check if 'mat' appears in the list of supported formats with 'identify -list format'
    Affected if MAT format is listed as a supported format or the mat coder is present
  3. Confirm MAT file processing capability
    Run 'identify /path/to/any.mat' on a sample MAT file, or check if ImageMagick can identify MAT files at all
    Affected if ImageMagick can read and identify MAT file format without error, indicating the vulnerable coder is active

You are affected if ImageMagick version 7.0.7-12 is installed AND the MAT file format coder (coders/mat.c) is enabled and capable of processing MAT files in your environment.

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

Update ImageMagick to a version beyond 7.0.7-12 that contains the patch, or disable MAT file format support in ImageMagick if MAT files are not required for processing.

Fix this in Ubuntu Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,380
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,808.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-17881 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2017-17881 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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