CVE-2023-47997 is a denial of service vulnerability found in FreeImage version 3.18.0, specifically within the BitmapAccess.cpp source file's FreeImage_AllocateBitmap function. The flaw arises from an infinite loop condition triggered during bitmap allocation, which can be exploited by an attacker to cause the affected application or service to hang indefinitely, leading to resource exhaustion and denial of service. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-835 (Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition), indicating a programming logic error that prevents normal termination of a loop. According to the CVSS 3.1 vector, the attack can be launched remotely over the network (AV:N) with low attack complexity (AC:L), does not require privileges (PR:N), but does require user interaction (UI:R), such as opening a crafted image file. The impact is limited to availability (A:H), with no confidentiality or integrity loss. No known exploits have been reported in the wild, and no official patches or updates have been linked yet. This vulnerability primarily affects applications that utilize FreeImage 3.18.0 for image processing, especially those that handle untrusted image inputs, such as web services, media processing pipelines, or desktop applications. The infinite loop can cause the application to become unresponsive, potentially leading to denial of service conditions that disrupt normal operations.

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2023-47997 is service disruption due to denial of service conditions in applications relying on FreeImage 3.18.0. This can affect sectors such as digital media, software development, and any enterprise using image processing libraries in their products or internal tools. The unavailability caused by infinite loops can lead to downtime, reduced productivity, and potential loss of customer trust if public-facing services are impacted. Since the vulnerability requires user interaction, phishing or social engineering campaigns could be used to trick users into opening malicious images, increasing the risk in environments with less stringent input validation. Although confidentiality and integrity are not directly affected, the availability impact can have cascading effects on business continuity and operational resilience. Organizations with automated image processing workflows or web services accepting image uploads are particularly at risk. The lack of patches means that mitigation currently relies on defensive controls and monitoring.

1. Monitor official FreeImage project channels for patches or updates addressing CVE-2023-47997 and apply them promptly once available. 2. Implement strict input validation and sanitization for all image files processed by applications using FreeImage, rejecting or sandboxing untrusted or suspicious images. 3. Employ application-level timeouts or watchdog mechanisms to detect and recover from infinite loops or hangs caused by malformed images. 4. Educate users about the risks of opening images from untrusted sources to reduce the likelihood of triggering the vulnerability via social engineering. 5. Where feasible, consider upgrading to alternative, actively maintained image processing libraries that do not exhibit this vulnerability. 6. Use network-level protections such as web application firewalls (WAFs) to filter malicious payloads targeting image processing endpoints. 7. Conduct regular security assessments and fuzz testing on image handling components to identify similar logic flaws proactively.