The vulnerability identified as CVE-2026-24403 affects the InternationalColorConsortium's iccDEV library, a widely used toolset for handling ICC color management profiles. Specifically, in versions 2.3.1.1 and earlier, the function CIccProfile::CheckHeader() within icValidateStatus improperly validates input data, leading to an integer overflow condition. This occurs when attackers craft malicious ICC profiles with tampered tag tables, offsets, or size fields, causing the parser to miscalculate buffer sizes or offsets. The integer overflow can result in memory corruption, which may manifest as application crashes (denial of service) or potentially allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code by overwriting critical memory regions. The vulnerability does not require any privileges but does require user interaction, such as opening or processing a malicious ICC profile. The CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.1 reflects its high severity, with network attack vector, low attack complexity, no privileges required, but user interaction needed. Although no exploits have been observed in the wild, the vulnerability's nature makes it a serious concern for applications that automatically process ICC profiles, such as image editors, printing software, and multimedia frameworks. The issue has been fixed in iccDEV version 2.3.1.2, which includes proper input validation to prevent integer overflow during profile header checks.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2026-24403 can be significant, especially those in industries relying heavily on color management workflows, such as printing, publishing, graphic design, photography, and multimedia production. Exploitation could lead to denial of service, disrupting critical imaging or printing pipelines, causing operational downtime and financial loss. More critically, if arbitrary code execution is achieved, attackers could compromise systems, leading to data integrity breaches or lateral movement within networks. Given the vulnerability can be triggered remotely via crafted ICC profiles, organizations that accept user-generated content or external files pose a higher risk. This includes web services, cloud-based image processing platforms, and collaborative design environments. The confidentiality impact is rated as none to low, but integrity and availability impacts are high due to potential memory corruption and application crashes. The lack of known exploits provides a window for proactive mitigation, but the high severity score necessitates urgent attention.

European organizations should immediately upgrade iccDEV libraries to version 2.3.1.2 or later to eliminate the vulnerability. For environments where immediate patching is not feasible, implement strict input validation and filtering on ICC profile files before processing, including rejecting profiles with suspicious or malformed tag tables and size fields. Employ application-level sandboxing or containerization for software that processes ICC profiles to limit the impact of potential exploitation. Monitor logs and alerts for crashes or unusual behavior in applications handling ICC profiles. Additionally, restrict the acceptance of ICC profiles from untrusted sources and educate users about the risks of opening files from unknown origins. Incorporate vulnerability scanning and software composition analysis in the development lifecycle to detect vulnerable iccDEV versions. Finally, maintain up-to-date backups and incident response plans to quickly recover from potential denial of service or compromise scenarios.