CVE-2023-40032 | Potential segfault due to NULL pointer dereference in libvips

libvips is a demand-driven, horizontally threaded image processing library. A specially crafted SVG input can cause libvips versions 8.14.3 or earlier to segfault when attempting to parse a malformed UTF-8 character. Users should upgrade to libvips version 8.14.4 (or later) when processing untrusted input.

Published: 2023-09-11 Last update: 2025-04-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-40032 is rated Low Risk (27.3/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.24%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2023-40032

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 0.07% 0.24% +0.17%
2 2025-03-17 0.04% 0.07% +0.03%
3 2023-09-12 0.04%

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-40032

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-40032

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-40032

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2023-40032 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (vips), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-40032
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-40032 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (vips), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 7, ignored 3, released 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-40032

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-40032

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
fedoraproject fedora 39 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:39:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
libvips libvips >= 8.12.0, < 8.14.4 cpe:2.3:a:libvips:libvips:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-40032

cvelogic Threat Intelligence