Use-after-free in libpng - CVE-2026-46675
Published: September 29, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU152733
CSH Severity: Medium
CVSS v4: 8.2 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-46675
CWE-ID: CWE-416
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 use-after-free in the libpng sequential reader's png_read_end function when processing crafted zTXt, iTXt, or iCCP chunks after incomplete decompression. A remote attacker can provide a crafted PNG file to cause a denial of service.
Exploitation requires an application to call png_read_end after png_read_info without first reading image rows.
Affected software
libpng
Debian Linux
libpng1.6 (Debian package)
Debian Linux
libpng1.6 (Debian package)
How to mitigate CVE-2026-46675
Install security update from vendor's website.
libpng - update to 1.6.59
libpng1.6 (Debian package) - update to 1.6.48-1+deb13u6
libpng1.6 (Debian package) - update to 1.6.48-1+deb13u6