Use-after-free in libpng - CVE-2026-33416
Published: April 9, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU125601
CSH Severity: High
CVSS v4.0: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Amber
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-33416
CWE-ID: CWE-416
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vendor: libpng
Affected software:
libpng
libpng
Detailed vulnerability description
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code.
The vulnerability exists due to use-after-free in png_set_tRNS and png_set_PLTE when processing a crafted PNG file and subsequent decoding after png_free_data() or repeated setter calls. A remote attacker can supply a specially crafted PNG file to execute arbitrary code.
User interaction is required to open or process the crafted PNG file, and exploitation affects applications that free PNG data between png_read_info() and png_read_update_info().
How to mitigate CVE-2026-33416
Install security update from vendor's website.