Ubuntu LinuxOperating system · Canonical
CVE-2017-17886
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 · uneditedIn ImageMagick 7.0.7-12 Q16, a memory leak vulnerability was found in the function ReadPSDChannelZip in coders/psd.c, which allows attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted psd 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 · moderate confidenceA memory leak vulnerability exists in ImageMagick 7.0.7-12 Q16 within the ReadPSDChannelZip function in coders/psd.c. When parsing PSD (Photoshop) image files, allocated memory for channel data during zip decompression is not properly freed, leading to resource exhaustion and denial of service when processing crafted PSD files.
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
= 14.04= 16.04= 17.10= 18.04= 7.0.7-12CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed ImageMagick versionRun `convert -version` or `magick -version` to get the version numberAffected if Version is exactly 7.0.7-12 (or falls within the 7.0.7-12 range if your distribution backported changes)
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Confirm ImageMagick PSD coder is availableRun `convert -list configure | grep -i psd` or check if `coders/psd.c` exists in the installation directory (typically /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ImageMagick-*/coders/)Affected if PSD support is compiled into ImageMagick (the psd.c coder exists)
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Determine if PSD file processing is enabledCheck ImageMagick policy.xml (typically /etc/ImageMagick-6/policy.xml or /etc/ImageMagick/policy.xml) for any PSD-related restrictions; also run `identify -list format | grep -i psd` to see if PSD is listed as supportedAffected if PSD is listed as a supported format and not explicitly disabled in policy.xml (the vulnerability only triggers when parsing PSD files)
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Test with a crafted PSD file (optional verification)If you have a PSD file that triggers the vulnerability, run `identify <file.psd>` and monitor memory usage with `top` or `ps` to observe if memory grows unbounded during processingAffected if Memory usage of the identify process grows continuously without being released, indicating the leak is present
You are affected if ImageMagick version is exactly 7.0.7-12, PSD support is compiled in, and PSD file processing is not disabled in the policy configuration.
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 to a patched version of ImageMagick beyond 7.0.7-12, or disable PSD file processing in ImageMagick policy configuration if the update is not immediately feasible.
Fix this in Ubuntu Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,512.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-17886 — 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-2017-17886 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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