CVE-2023-3576 is a medium-severity vulnerability identified in the tiffcrop utility, which is part of the Libtiff library used within Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 (RHEL 9). The vulnerability arises from improper restriction of operations within the bounds of a memory buffer, specifically manifesting as a memory leak when tiffcrop processes crafted TIFF image files. An attacker can exploit this flaw by supplying a maliciously crafted TIFF image to the tiffcrop utility, triggering the memory leak. This leak can cause the application to crash, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability does not impact confidentiality or integrity, as it does not allow data disclosure or modification, but it affects availability due to the potential for application crashes. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 5.5, reflecting a medium severity level, with the vector indicating local attack vector (AV:L), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), user interaction required (UI:R), unchanged scope (S:U), no impact on confidentiality or integrity (C:N/I:N), and high impact on availability (A:H). No known exploits in the wild have been reported to date. The vulnerability specifically affects Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 installations that utilize the tiffcrop utility, which is commonly used for image processing tasks involving TIFF files. Given that the attack requires local access and user interaction, exploitation is limited to scenarios where an attacker can induce a user to process a crafted TIFF file using tiffcrop, such as in automated image processing workflows or user-initiated commands.

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2023-3576 is a potential denial of service on systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 that utilize the tiffcrop utility for TIFF image processing. This could disrupt services or workflows that rely on automated or manual image cropping, particularly in sectors such as media, publishing, scientific research, and any industry handling large volumes of TIFF images. While the vulnerability does not lead to data breaches or integrity compromise, the availability impact could affect operational continuity. Organizations with automated pipelines processing TIFF images may experience crashes leading to downtime or require manual intervention to recover. Given the local attack vector and requirement for user interaction, remote exploitation is unlikely without additional attack vectors such as social engineering or insider threat. The absence of known exploits reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate the potential for future exploitation. The impact is more pronounced in environments where tiffcrop is integrated into critical workflows or where system availability is paramount.

To mitigate CVE-2023-3576, European organizations should: 1) Apply patches or updates from Red Hat as soon as they become available to address the memory leak in the tiffcrop utility. 2) Implement strict input validation and scanning of TIFF files before processing, especially those received from untrusted sources, to detect and block malformed or suspicious TIFF images. 3) Limit the use of tiffcrop to trusted users and environments, restricting access to the utility to reduce the risk of exploitation via crafted files. 4) Employ application whitelisting and monitoring to detect abnormal crashes or memory usage spikes associated with tiffcrop executions. 5) Incorporate user training to raise awareness about the risks of processing untrusted image files and to recognize potential social engineering attempts that could lead to exploitation. 6) Where feasible, isolate image processing tasks in sandboxed or containerized environments to contain potential denial of service impacts. 7) Review and harden automated workflows that involve TIFF image processing to include error handling and failover mechanisms to maintain availability in case of crashes.