GitHub Advisoryadvisory · PyPI
GHSA-24p2-j2jr-386w psd-tools: Compression module has unguarded zlib decompression, missing dimension validation, and hardening gaps
MEDIUM
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-27809
- Ecosystem
- PyPI
- Packages
- psd-tools
- Severity
- Moderate
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U
- Weaknesses
- CWE-190, CWE-409, CWE-617, CWE-704, CWE-755, CWE-789
- Reviewed
- 2026-02-26
Affected packages
• PyPI psd-tools: < 1.12.2 → fixed in 1.12.2
Description
Summary
A security review of the `psd_tools.compression` module (conducted against the `fix/invalid-rle-compression` branch, commits `7490ffa`–`2a006f5`) identified the following pre-existing issues. The two findings introduced and fixed by those commits (Cython buffer overflow, `IndexError` on lone repeat header) are excluded from this report.
---
Findings
1. Unguarded `zlib.decompress` — ZIP bomb / memory exhaustion (Medium)
Location: `src/psd_tools/compression/__init__.py`, lines 159 and 162
```python
result = zlib.decompress(data) # Compression.ZIP
decompressed = zlib.decompress(data) # Compression.ZIP_WITH_PREDICTION
```
`zlib.decompress` is called without a `max_length` cap. A crafted PSD file containing a ZIP-compressed channel whose compressed payload expands to gigabytes would exhaust process memory before any limit is enforced. The RLE path is not vulnerable to this because the decoder pre-allocates exactly `row_size × height` bytes; the ZIP path has no equivalent ceiling.
Impact: Denial-of-service / OOM crash when processing untrusted PSD files.
Suggested mitigation: Pass a reasonable `max_length` to `zlib.decompress`, derived from the expected `width * height * depth // 8` byte count already computed in `decompress()`.
---
2. No upper-bound validation on image dimensions before allocation (Low)
Location: `src/psd_tools/compression/__init__.py`, lines 138 and 193
```python
length = width * height * max(1, depth // 8) # decompress()
row_size = max(width * depth // 8, 1) # decode_rle()
```
Neither `width`, `height`, nor `depth` are range-checked before these values drive memory allocation. The PSD format (version 2 / PSB) permits dimensions up to 300,000 × 300,000 pixels; a 4-channel 32-bit image at that size would require ~144 TB to hold. While the OS/Python allocator will reject such a request, there is no early, explicit guard that produces a clean, user-facing error.
Impact: Uncontrolled allocation attempt from a malformed or adversarially crafted PSB file; hard crash rather than a recoverable error.
Suggested mitigation: Validate `width`, `height`, and `depth` against known PSD/PSB limits before entering decompression, and raise a descriptive `ValueError` early.
---
3. `assert` used as a runtime integrity check (Low)
Location: `src/psd_tools/compression/__init__.py`, line 170
```python
assert len(result) == length, "len=%d, expected=%d" % (len(result), length)
```
This assertion can be silently disabled by running the interpreter with `-O` (or `-OO`), which strips all `assert` statements. If the assertion ever becomes relevant (e.g., after future refactoring), disabling it would allow a length mismatch to propagate silently into downstream image compositing.
Impact: Loss of an integrity guard in optimised deployments.
Suggested mitigation: Replace with an explicit `if` + `raise ValueError(...)`.
---
4. `cdef int` indices vs. `Py_ssize_t size` type mismatch in Cython decoder (Low)
Location: `src/psd_tools/compression/_rle.pyx`, lines 18–20
```cython
cdef int i = 0
cdef int j = 0
cdef int length = data.shape[0]
```
All loop indices are C `signed int` (32-bit). The `size` parameter is `Py_ssize_t` (64-bit on modern platforms). The comparison `j 2 GB row sizes; not reachable from standard PSD/PSB parsing.
Suggested mitigation: Change `cdef int i`, `j`, `length` to `cdef Py_ssize_t`.
---
5. Silent data degradation not surfaced to callers (Informational)
Location: `src/psd_tools/compression/__init__.py`, lines 144–157
The tolerant RLE decoder (introduced in `2a006f5`) replaces malformed channel data with zero-padded (black) pixels and emits a `logger.warning`. This is the correct trade-off over crashing, but the warning is only observable if the caller has configured a log handler. The public `PSDImage` API does not surface channel-level decode failures to the user in any other way.
Impact: A user parsing a silently corrupt file gets a visually wrong image with no programmatic signal to check.
Suggested mitigation: Consider exposing a per-channel decode-error flag or raising a distinct warning category that users can filter or escalate via the `warnings` module.
---
6. `encode()` zero-length return type inconsistency in Cython (Informational)
Location: `src/psd_tools/compression/_rle.pyx`, lines 66–67
```cython
if length == 0:
return data # returns a memoryview, not an explicit std::string
```
All other return paths return an explicit `cdef string result`. This path returns `data` (a `const unsigned char[:]` memoryview) and relies on Cython's implicit coercion to `bytes`. It is functionally equivalent today but is semantically inconsistent and fragile if Cython's coercion rules change in a future version.
Impact: Potential silent breakage in future Cython versions; not a current security issue.
Suggested mitigation: Replace `return data` with `return result` (the already-declared empty `string`).
---
Environment
• Branch: `fix/invalid-rle-compression`
• Reviewed commits: `7490ffa`, `2a006f5`
• Python: 3.x (Cython extension compiled for CPython)
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-27809 psd-tools is a Python package for working with Adobe Photoshop PSD files. vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (6)
- CWE-190 Integer Overflow or Wraparound weakness
- CWE-409 Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification) weakness
- CWE-617 Reachable Assertion weakness
- CWE-704 Incorrect Type Conversion or Cast weakness
- CWE-755 Improper Handling of Exceptional Conditions weakness
- CWE-789 Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value weakness
References
- https://github.com/psd-tools/psd-tools/security/advisories/GHSA-24p2-j2jr-386w web
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-27809 advisory
- https://github.com/psd-tools/psd-tools/commit/6c0a78f195b5942757886a1863793fd5946c1fb1 web
- https://github.com/psd-tools/psd-tools package
- https://github.com/psd-tools/psd-tools/releases/tag/v1.12.2 web