Enterprise LinuxOperating system · Redhat
CVE-2026-40916
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 · uneditedA flaw was found in GIMP. A stack buffer overflow vulnerability in the TIM image loader's 4BPP decoding path allows a local user to cause a Denial of Service (DoS). By opening a specially crafted TIM image file, the application crashes due to an unconditional overflow when writing to a variable-length array.
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 confidenceGIMP contains a stack buffer overflow vulnerability in its TIM image format loader's 4BPP (4 bits per pixel) decoding path. When parsing a specially crafted TIM image file, the application performs an unconditional write beyond the bounds of a variable-length array allocated on the stack, causing a crash and denial of service.
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
Enterprise LinuxOperating system
= 6.0= 7.0= 8.0= 9.0all versionsCVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check if GIMP is installedRun 'gimp --version' or check package manager (rpm -q gimp or dpkg -l gimp)Affected if GIMP is not installed - the user is not affected by this vulnerability in GIMP
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Determine GIMP versionRun 'gimp --version' to get the exact version numberAffected if All GIMP versions are affected per the advisory - any installed version is vulnerable
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Check for TIM plugin supportLook for TIM-related plug-ins in GIMP's plugin directory (typically ~/.gimp-2.x/plug-ins/ or /usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/) - or check if GIMP can open .tim files by inspecting file format supportAffected if TIM file format loader is present and GIMP can load .tim files - the vulnerability can be triggered when opening a specially crafted TIM file
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Verify 4BPP TIM decoding is reachableConfirm GIMP's TIM loader handles 4BPP format images - this is the vulnerable code path. Check plugin verbose output or documentation for TIM format supportAffected if 4BPP TIM format decoding is supported - the specific vulnerable code path exists in the installation
A user is affected if GIMP is installed with TIM file format support (including 4BPP decoding), as all versions contain the stack buffer overflow vulnerability in the TIM 4BPP decoder that triggers when parsing a specially crafted TIM image file.
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 dataUsers should avoid opening untrusted or unknown TIM image files in GIMP until a patch is available. Developers need to add proper bounds checking in the TIM 4BPP decoder to validate input sizes against allocated buffer dimensions before writing.
Fix this in Enterprise Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-40916 — 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-2026-40916 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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