CVE-2026-112891: CWE-407: Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity in python-pillow Pillow
Description
A vulnerability in the python-pillow Pillow library versions 9.2.0 through 12.x causes inefficient quadratic copying when saving GIF images with long comments. This leads to excessive CPU consumption and potential denial of service. The issue is fixed in version 13.0.0.
CVSS v4.0
Score 6.9medium
Affected software
python-pillow
Pillow
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Weaknesses
AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
Pillow, a Python imaging library, contains an inefficient algorithmic complexity vulnerability (CWE-407) in versions from 9.2.0 up to but not including 13.0.0. The function _get_global_header() performs repeated copying of comment data when saving GIF images with long comments, causing quadratic time complexity. An attacker can exploit this by supplying a GIF with a large comment to an application that saves it as GIF, resulting in excessive CPU usage and potential denial of service. This vulnerability is addressed in Pillow version 13.0.0.
Potential Impact
Exploitation of this vulnerability can cause excessive CPU consumption leading to performance degradation or denial of service in applications using affected Pillow versions to save GIF images with large comments. There is no indication of privilege escalation or data compromise.
Mitigation Recommendations
Upgrade to Pillow version 13.0.0 or later, where this inefficiency has been fixed. No other mitigations are indicated by the vendor advisory.
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- GitHub_M
- Date Reserved
- 2026-10-19T20:16:09.856Z
- Cvss Version
- 4.0
- State
- PUBLISHED
Threat ID: 6ad6905d2cdf04f65694f773
Added to database: 10/19/2026, 21:49:17 UTC
Last enriched: 10/19/2026, 22:03:43 UTC
Last updated: 10/19/2026, 22:08:22 UTC
Views: 8
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