CVE-2026-50142
libheif: unbounded heap allocation in HEIF sequence parser (stsz fixed-size mode missing bound check)
- Published
- Aug 18, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 19, 2026
- Assigning CNA
- GitHub_M
- Evidence observed
- Aug 28, 2026
Primary CVSS
nvd · CVSS 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HLow · next 30 days
- Percentile
- 45.0%
- Model date
- Sep 21, 2026
EPSS is a statistical estimate, not a certainty or a measure of impact. Combine it with CVSS, KEV status, exposure and your environment.
Summary
libheif is a HEIF and AVIF file format decoder and encoder. From 1.19.0 until 1.23.0, a crafted HEIF sequence accepted by heif_context_read_from_memory() with the msf1 sequence brand can cause unbounded heap allocation. In libheif/sequences/seq_boxes.cc, Box_stsz::parse() applies max_sequence_frames only to variable-size samples, so fixed-size mode accepts an attacker-controlled sample_count without a bound. In libheif/sequences/track.cc, Track::load() also adds current_sample_idx and samples_per_chunk in 32-bit arithmetic, allowing the consistency check to be bypassed by wraparound. The resulting values reach the Chunk::Chunk() allocation path, which can consume gigabytes of memory and crash or stall the process through memory exhaustion. This issue is fixed in version 1.23.0.
Sources
1- libheif-cve-2026-50142Research
CVE-2026-50142 — Heap allocation vulnerability in libheif HEIF sequence parser
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