CVE-2019-16865

An issue was discovered in Pillow before 6.2.0. When reading specially crafted invalid image files, the library can either allocate very large amounts of memory or take an extremely long period of time to process the image.

Published: 2019-10-04 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2019-16865 is rated Moderate Risk (59.4/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.15%). Review affected assets and schedule 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-2019-16865

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 2026-06-15 3.94% 3.15% -0.79%
2 2026-02-18 5.20% 3.94% -1.26%
3 2025-09-02 — 5.20% —

Full EPSS history (18 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-16865

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-16865

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2019-16865

GHSA-j7mj-748x-7p78 · Severity: high · Ecosystem: pip — DOS attack in Pillow when processing specially crafted image files

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-16865

vendor priority summary link
debian low CVE-2019-16865 low priority: Debian including 1 source packages (pillow), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2019-16865
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-16865
suse medium CVE-2019-16865 severity moderate: SUSE including 294 source package names (ansible-2.2.3.0-12.2, ansible-2.4.6.0-3.9.1, …), 516 product×package rows across 9 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE Enterprise Storage 5, … (9 product lines)): Fixed 516. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-16865/
ubuntu low CVE-2019-16865 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (pillow), 6 status rows across 6 suites (bionic, disco, eoan, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 5, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-16865

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-16865

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
python pillow < 6.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:python:pillow:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 30 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:30:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 31 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:31:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-16865

cvelogic Threat Intelligence