CVE-2026-8824
Description
A flaw was found in vtk. The image reader component, vtkBMPReader, improperly handles input boundaries, leading to a buffer overflow when processing bitmap (BMP) files. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability by providing a specially crafted BMP file, causing the application to crash and resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).
Statement
This vulnerability is rated as having Moderate impact because exploitation requires user interaction to process an untrusted bitmap image, and the resulting blast radius is constrained to application crash and denial of service without compromising data integrity or confidentiality. The Visualization Toolkit (VTK) is not packaged in default Red Hat Enterprise Linux installations and is only available through community repositories such as EPEL. Consequently, core enterprise deployments remain unaffected unless custom software or third-party packages explicitly consume this graphics library to parse untrusted image assets.
Mitigation
Avoid processing untrusted BMP files; upgrade to a fixed vtk release once the fix version is confirmed.
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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