A stack buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the TIM image loader's 4BPP decoding path in GIMP on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. This vulnerability is triggered by opening a specially crafted TIM image file, causing an unconditional overflow when writing to a variable-length array on the stack. The result is a Denial of Service condition due to application crash. The vulnerability requires local user privileges and user interaction to exploit. The CVSS 3.1 vector is AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H, reflecting local attack vector, low complexity, low privileges, user interaction required, unchanged scope, no confidentiality or integrity impact, and high impact on availability. No patch or official remediation level is provided in the vendor advisory at this time.

The vulnerability allows a local user to cause a Denial of Service by crashing the GIMP application when processing a malicious TIM image file. There is no impact on confidentiality or integrity. The disruption affects availability of the application but does not escalate privileges or allow code execution based on the provided information. No known exploits in the wild have been reported.

Patch status is not yet confirmed — check the Red Hat advisory at https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-40916 for current remediation guidance. Until a patch is available, restrict local user access to GIMP or avoid opening untrusted TIM image files to prevent triggering the vulnerability.