GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Go

GHSA-mmq5-xm89-9pfg imgproxy has unbounded memory allocation in ICO loader that allows unauthenticated memory-exhaustion DoS via crafted data_size field

HIGH Published 2026-10-30 Modified 2026-10-30 Official page ↗
Ecosystem
Go
Packages
github.com/imgproxy/imgproxy/v3
Severity
High
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weaknesses
CWE-400
Reviewed
2026-10-30

Affected packages

• Go github.com/imgproxy/imgproxy/v3: >= 3.3.0, < 4.0.16 → fixed in 4.0.16

Description

Summary Unbounded and unvalidated memory allocation in imgproxy's ICO loader (`vips/icoload.c`). An attacker-controlled `data_size` field (u32) from the ICO directory entry is passed directly to `VIPS_MALLOC` without any bounds check, so a single crafted 23-byte ICO file makes an imgproxy worker attempt a ~4GB allocation. Present in the latest release (v4.0.15) and the 3.3.x series; confirmed on a live production deployment of imgproxy v4.0.15. Details In `vips_foreign_load_ico_header` in `vips/icoload.c`, the selected directory entry's `data_size` is read and used directly for the allocation: ``` uint32_t data_size = GUINT32_FROM_LE(largest_image_header.data_size); // BMP file explicitly excludes BITMAPFILEHEADER, so we need to add it manually. VipsPel *data = (VipsPel *) VIPS_MALLOC(NULL, data_size + BMP_FILE_HEADER_LEN); ``` There is no validation that `data_size` is sane nor any check that the file actually contains `data_size` bytes at the declared `data_offset`. A crafted 23-byte ICO whose directory entry declares `data_size = 0xfa000068` (~4GB) drives `VIPS_MALLOC(NULL, ~4GB + 14)`. PoC ```py make_ico_4gb.py — generates the exact 23-byte unbounded-allocation trigger. Byte-identical to the checksummed, production-verified file: ico-4gb.ico sha256 6cee1fbfdc69fd4f507e86835ce2fa54519e55608f1dd69f42860f9961b1045b import struct, hashlib hdr = struct.pack(' HTTP 500 (worker survives, but each request burns ~4GB transiently — repeatable memory exhaustion). ``` Impact Unauthenticated network DoS / memory-exhaustion: on memory-constrained workers, a crash per crafted request. On larger hosts, ~4GB transient allocation per request (sustained firing exhausts memory or the allocation budget). Any imgproxy deployment that processes attacker-supplied images.

Related

Weakness · CWE (1)

  • CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption weakness

References