CVE-2011-2896

The LZW decompressor in the LWZReadByte function in giftoppm.c in the David Koblas GIF decoder in PBMPLUS, as used in the gif_read_lzw function in filter/image-gif.c in CUPS before 1.4.7, the LZWReadByte function in plug-ins/common/file-gif-load.c in GIMP 2.6.11 and earlier, the LZWReadByte function in img/gifread.c in XPCE in SWI-Prolog 5.10.4 and earlier, and other products, does not properly handle code words that are absent from the decompression table when encountered, which allows remote attackers to trigger an infinite loop or a heap-based buffer overflow, and possibly execute arbitrary code, via a crafted compressed stream, a related issue to CVE-2006-1168 and CVE-2011-2895.

Published: 2011-08-19 Last update: 2026-04-29 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2011-2896 is rated Moderate Risk (50.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 7.22%, 91th percentile). EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2011-2896

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-03-12 9.06% 7.22% -1.84%
2 2026-02-18 7.61% 9.06% +1.45%
3 2025-12-01 — 7.61% —

Full EPSS history (16 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2011-2896

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.1 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:H/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:H)
Exploitation requires uncommon or highly specific conditions.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 4.9 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2011-2896

OS Trackers for CVE-2011-2896

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2011-2896 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (cups, gimp), 10 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 10. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2011-2896
gentoo normal CVE-2011-2896: 1 GLSA(s) (201209-23), 1 atom(s) (media-gfx/gimp); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2011-2896
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2011-2896
ubuntu medium CVE-2011-2896 medium priority: Ubuntu including 4 source packages (cups, cupsys, gimp, swi-prolog), 136 status rows across 34 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hardy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lucid, lunar, mantic, maverick, natty, noble, oneiric, oracular, plucky, precise, quantal, questing, raring, saucy, trusty, upstream, utopic, vivid, wily, xenial, yakkety, zesty): not-affected 55 (6 distinct statuses). https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2011-2896

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2011-2896

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
swi-prolog swi-prolog <= 5.10.4 cpe:2.3:a:swi-prolog:swi-prolog:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apple cups <= 1.4.6 cpe:2.3:a:apple:cups:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gimp gimp <= 2.6.11 cpe:2.3:a:gimp:gimp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2011-2896

URL Tags
http://cups.org/str.php?L3867 Patch Third Party Advisory
http://git.gnome.org/browse/gimp/commit/?id=376ad788c1a1c31d40f18494889c383f6909ebfc Patch Vendor Advisory
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2011-August/064600.html Third Party Advisory
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2011-August/064873.html Third Party Advisory
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2011-September/065527.html Third Party Advisory
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2011-September/065539.html Third Party Advisory
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2011-September/065550.html Third Party Advisory
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2011-September/065651.html Third Party Advisory
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-1180.html Third Party Advisory
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-1181.html Third Party Advisory
http://secunia.com/advisories/45621 Broken Link
http://secunia.com/advisories/45900 Broken Link
http://secunia.com/advisories/45945 Broken Link
http://secunia.com/advisories/45948 Broken Link
http://secunia.com/advisories/46024 Broken Link
http://secunia.com/advisories/48236 Broken Link
http://secunia.com/advisories/48308 Broken Link
http://secunia.com/advisories/50737 Broken Link
http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-201209-23.xml Third Party Advisory
http://www.debian.org/security/2011/dsa-2354 Third Party Advisory
http://www.debian.org/security/2012/dsa-2426 Third Party Advisory
http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2011:146 Broken Link
http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2011:167 Broken Link
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2011/08/10/10 Mailing List Patch Third Party Advisory
http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2011-1635.html Broken Link
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/49148 Broken Link Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://www.securitytracker.com/id?1025929 Broken Link Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://www.swi-prolog.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=7#c4 Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1207-1 Third Party Advisory
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1214-1 Third Party Advisory
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=727800 Issue Tracking Patch Third Party Advisory
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=730338 Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
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