CVE-2026-25965 | ImageMagick's policy bypass through path traversal allows reading restricted content despite secured policy

ImageMagick is free and open-source software used for editing and manipulating digital images. Prior to versions 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40, ImageMagick’s path security policy is enforced on the raw filename string before the filesystem resolves it. As a result, a policy rule such as /etc/* can be bypassed by a path traversal. The OS resolves the traversal and opens the sensitive file, but the policy matcher only sees the unnormalized path and therefore allows the read. This enables local file disclosure (LFI) even when policy-secure.xml is applied. Actions to prevent reading from files have been taken in versions .7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40 But it make sure writing is also not possible the following should be added to one's policy. This will also be included in ImageMagick's more secure policies by default.

Published: 2026-02-24 Last update: 2026-02-25 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-25965 is rated Low Risk (37.7/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.03%). 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-2026-25965

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 2026-02-24 — 0.03% —

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-25965

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.6 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N 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:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 4.0 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N 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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-25965

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-25965

GHSA-8jvj-p28h-9gm7 · Severity: high · Ecosystem: nuget — ImageMagick: Policy bypass through path traversal allows reading restricted content despite secured policy

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-25965

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2026-25965: 1 source package rows (imagemagick); 82 state rows across 2 repos (3.23-community, edge-community); fixed 8, open 74. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2026-25965
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-25965 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (imagemagick), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-25965
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-25965
suse high CVE-2026-25965 severity important: SUSE including 89 source package names (2.2.1-5.54:rsync-3.3.0-slfo.1.1_4.1, 2.2.1-5.62:rsync-3.3.0-slfo.1.1_4.1, …), 264 product×package rows across 43 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.1/baremetal-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.1/base-os-container, … (43 product lines)): Fixed 215, Known Not Affected 35, First Fixed 14. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-25965/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-25965 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (imagemagick), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 8. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-25965

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-25965

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
imagemagick imagemagick < 6.9.13-40 cpe:2.3:a:imagemagick:imagemagick:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
imagemagick imagemagick >= 7.0.0-0, < 7.1.2-15 cpe:2.3:a:imagemagick:imagemagick:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-25965

cvelogic Threat Intelligence