Deadlock in libheif - #VU147374
Published: September 8, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU147374
CSH Severity: Medium
CVSS v4: 8.7 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: N/A
CWE-ID: CWE-833
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to cause a denial of service.
The vulnerability exists due to a lock-order inversion in the parallel grid tile decoding path when decoding a crafted HEIF grid file with mutually referenced alpha auxiliary images. A remote attacker can submit a specially crafted HEIF file to cause a denial of service.
Once both tile decoding workers have been dispatched, cancellation is no longer polled.
Affected software
libheif
Remediation
Install security update from vendor's website.
libheif - update to 1.23.4