CVE-2025-48797: GIMP Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

CVE-2025-48797 Overview

CVE-2025-48797 is a heap buffer overflow vulnerability in GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) affecting the way the application processes Targa (TGA) image files. An attacker can craft a malicious TGA image that, when opened in GIMP, triggers serious memory corruption. The flaw is classified under CWE-122: Heap-based Buffer Overflow and can lead to application crashes and potential code execution within the user's session.

The vulnerability requires user interaction, as the victim must open the malicious file in GIMP. Red Hat and Debian have issued multiple security advisories addressing this issue across supported distributions.

Critical Impact
A specially crafted TGA file can corrupt heap memory in GIMP, causing crashes and potentially enabling arbitrary code execution under the privileges of the user opening the file.

Affected Products

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) — TGA file loader
Red Hat Enterprise Linux distributions referenced in RHSA-2025:9162, 9165, 9308, 9309, 9310, 9314, 9315, 9316, 9501, and 9569
Debian LTS GIMP packages, per the Debian LTS Announcement

Discovery Timeline

2025-05-27 - CVE-2025-48797 published to NVD
2026-04-15 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-48797

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in GIMP's TGA image format parser. When GIMP processes a TGA file with malformed header fields or image data dimensions, the parser fails to correctly validate boundary conditions before writing decoded pixel data into a heap-allocated buffer. The result is a heap-based buffer overflow that overwrites adjacent heap memory.

Exploitation requires a user to open the malicious file locally, making the attack vector local with user interaction. While the typical outcome is a crash, controlled overflows in image decoders have historically been used to achieve arbitrary code execution by corrupting heap metadata or function pointers. The impact extends to confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the user's session.

Root Cause

The root cause is insufficient validation of attacker-controlled size or offset values in the TGA loader prior to memory operations. Fields describing image width, height, color map size, or pixel depth can be manipulated so that the buffer allocated for decoded data is smaller than the data subsequently written into it. Refer to GNOME GIMP Issue #11822 for upstream technical discussion.

Attack Vector

An attacker delivers a crafted .tga file through email, messaging platforms, file-sharing services, or a website. When the user opens the file in GIMP, the loader processes the malformed structure and corrupts heap memory. Because GIMP is commonly used by designers and content creators, social engineering is a plausible delivery method.

No verified public exploit code is currently available. Technical details are described in prose; consult the Red Hat CVE page for CVE-2025-48797 and Red Hat Bugzilla Issue #2368558 for further analysis.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-48797

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected GIMP process crashes or segmentation faults coinciding with opening TGA files.
Core dump files generated by GIMP processes referencing heap corruption messages such as malloc(): corrupted or free(): invalid pointer.
TGA files received from untrusted sources with anomalous header dimensions or oversized color map entries.

Detection Strategies

Monitor process telemetry for gimp or gimp-2.x child processes spawning shells, interpreters, or network utilities, which would indicate post-exploitation activity.
Inspect file write events in user temporary directories following TGA file access in GIMP.
Use file-format inspection tools to validate TGA headers against image dimensions before users open them in bulk-processing pipelines.

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable system crash reporting (such as systemd-coredump or abrt) to capture and triage GIMP crashes for forensic review.
Track installed GIMP package versions across endpoints and flag systems running unpatched releases against the Red Hat and Debian advisories.
Alert on inbound email attachments and downloads with the .tga extension from external senders.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-48797

Immediate Actions Required

Apply vendor-supplied GIMP updates from your Linux distribution as soon as they are available.
Avoid opening TGA files received from untrusted or unverified sources until patches are applied.
Inventory systems with GIMP installed and prioritize patching workstations used by designers and content teams.

Patch Information

Red Hat has published fixes in advisories RHSA-2025:9162, RHSA-2025:9165, RHSA-2025:9308, RHSA-2025:9309, RHSA-2025:9310, RHSA-2025:9314, RHSA-2025:9315, RHSA-2025:9316, RHSA-2025:9501, and RHSA-2025:9569. Debian LTS users should refer to the Debian LTS Announcement for fixed package versions.

Workarounds

Restrict GIMP from opening files originating from untrusted email attachments or downloads pending patch deployment.
Convert untrusted TGA files to a different format using a sandboxed converter before opening them in GIMP.
Run GIMP within a sandbox or container such as Flatpak to limit the impact of successful exploitation.

bash

# Example: update GIMP on Red Hat Enterprise Linux
sudo dnf update gimp gimp-libs

# Example: update GIMP on Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt install --only-upgrade gimp libgimp2.0

# Verify installed version after patching
gimp --version