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FedoraOperating system · Fedoraproject

CVE-2023-3576

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-10-04
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 4.5.1 or later.
See remediation →
58/100
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
A memory leak flaw was found in Libtiff's tiffcrop utility. This issue occurs when tiffcrop operates on a TIFF image file, allowing an attacker to pass a crafted TIFF image file to tiffcrop utility, which causes this memory leak issue, resulting an application crash, eventually leading to a denial of service.

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

A memory leak vulnerability exists in Libtiff's tiffcrop utility when processing a specially crafted TIFF image file. The leak occurs during tiffcrop's operation on the malicious file, eventually exhausting memory and causing application crash, resulting in denial of service.

MitigationUpdate Libtiff to the version containing the fix for CVE-2023-3576 once released, or apply the vendor-supplied patch to address the memory leak in tiffcrop.c. Avoid processing untrusted TIFF files with tiffcrop until patched.

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
FedoraOperating system
Affected:all versions
Enterprise LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 8.0= 9.0
LibtiffApplication
Affected:< 4.5.1

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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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 if tiffcrop utility is present
    Run 'which tiffcrop' or 'rpm -q libtiff-tools' (RHEL/Fedora) to see if the tiffcrop binary is installed on the system.
    Affected if tiffcrop is installed and the system processes untrusted TIFF files with it.
  2. Identify installed Libtiff version
    Run 'rpm -q libtiff' (RHEL/Fedora) or check the library version with 'tiffinfo -version'. Compare the version number to the affected range (Libtiff < 4.5.1, RHEL 8.0/9.0, Fedora all versions).
    Affected if The installed Libtiff version is below 4.5.1, or the package version matches the affected RHEL versions (8.0 or 9.0).
  3. Check if tiffcrop processes external or untrusted input
    Review any scripts, automated workflows, or services that invoke tiffcrop. Look for file paths or inputs that could originate from untrusted sources (uploaded files, external systems, user uploads).
    Affected if tiffcrop is used to process TIFF files from untrusted or external sources without verification.
  4. Verify memory consumption during tiffcrop operation
    Run 'tiffcrop -v <sometiff>' and monitor memory usage with 'top' or 'ps' in another terminal. An unpatched version will show steadily increasing memory consumption.
    Affected if Memory usage grows continuously while tiffcrop processes a file, indicating the leak is active.

A system is affected if Libtiff version is below 4.5.1 (or matches RHEL 8.0/9.0) AND tiffcrop is used to process untrusted TIFF files, demonstrated by memory exhaustion during processing.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 4.5.1 or later
Fixed in 4.5.1
Interim mitigation

Update Libtiff to the version containing the fix for CVE-2023-3576 once released, or apply the vendor-supplied patch to address the memory leak in tiffcrop.c. Avoid processing untrusted TIFF files with tiffcrop until patched.

Recommended fix High confidence

Libtiff 4.5.1 or later / Enterprise Linux 8.0/9.0 updates / Fedora latest

  1. Update the system package cache (e.g., `dnf check-update` or `apt update`)
  2. Upgrade libtiff package to version 4.5.1 or later (e.g., `dnf update libtiff` or `apt install libtiff>=4.5.1`)
  3. Restart any services or applications using the libtiff library to ensure the updated version is loaded
  4. Verify the installed version matches or exceeds 4.5.1 using `rpm -q libtiff` or `dpkg -l libtiff`

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Fedora Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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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-2023-3576 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