CVE-2026-25966 | ImageMagick's Security Policy Bypass through config/policy-secure.xml via "fd handler" leads to stdin/stdout access

ImageMagick is free and open-source software used for editing and manipulating digital images. The shipped "secure" security policy includes a rule intended to prevent reading/writing from standard streams. However, ImageMagick also supports fd:<n> pseudo-filenames (e.g., fd:0, fd:1). Prior to versions 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40, this path form is not blocked by the secure policy templates, and therefore bypasses the protection goal of "no stdin/stdout." Versions 7.1.2-15 and 6.9.13-40 contain a patch by including a change to the more secure policies by default. As a workaround, add the change to one's security policy manually.

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-2026-25966 is rated Low Risk (24.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.01%). 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-2026-25966

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 — 0.01% —

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-25966

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.9 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L 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: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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 2.5 3.4 [email protected]
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-25966

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-25966

GHSA-xwc6-v6g8-pw2h · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: nuget — ImageMagick's Security Policy Bypass through config/policy-secure.xml via "fd handler" leads to stdin/stdout access

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-25966

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2026-25966: 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-2026-25966
debian unimportant CVE-2026-25966 unimportant 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-2026-25966
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-25966
suse medium CVE-2026-25966 severity moderate: SUSE including 88 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, …), 255 product×package rows across 40 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.1/baremetal-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.1/base-os-container, … (40 product lines)): Fixed 225, Known Not Affected 16, First Fixed 14. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-25966/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-25966 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-2026-25966

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-25966

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-2026-25966

cvelogic Threat Intelligence