CVE-2026-120208
Description
A flaw was found in libheif. This vulnerability allows a remote attacker to achieve arbitrary code execution or cause a denial of service (DoS) by supplying a specially crafted High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) image. Due to improper handling of color components with unequal bit depths in the uncompressed image decoder, processing the image triggers a heap-based buffer overflow, writing data outside allocated memory boundaries.
Statement
This vulnerability is rated as having Important impact because successful exploitation can lead to arbitrary code execution within the context of the running application when processing untrusted media files. While the heap memory corruption poses a serious risk to automated image-processing pipelines and desktop utilities, triggering it requires user interaction or ingestion of a maliciously constructed image. Furthermore, libheif is not distributed as part of core Red Hat Enterprise Linux channels, significantly limiting exposure across standard enterprise installations.
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Integrity
Technical Impact: Modify Memory; Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
Write operations could cause memory corruption. In some cases, an adversary can modify control data such as return addresses in order to execute unexpected code.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
Attempting to access out-of-range, invalid, or unauthorized memory could cause the product to crash.
Other
Technical Impact: Unexpected State
Subsequent write operations can produce undefined or unexpected results.
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