CVE-2026-33852 Overview
CVE-2026-33852 is a Memory Leak vulnerability affecting MolotovCherry Android-ImageMagick7, a popular Android port of the ImageMagick image processing library. The vulnerability stems from a Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime condition (CWE-401), where allocated memory is not properly freed after it is no longer needed. This flaw can be exploited remotely without authentication to cause resource exhaustion, leading to denial of service conditions on affected Android applications.
Critical Impact
Remote attackers can exploit this memory leak vulnerability to exhaust system resources on Android devices running affected versions of Android-ImageMagick7, potentially causing application crashes or device instability.
Affected Products
- MolotovCherry Android-ImageMagick7 versions prior to 7.1.2-11
Discovery Timeline
- 2026-03-24 - CVE-2026-33852 published to NVD
- 2026-03-26 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2026-33852
Vulnerability Analysis
This vulnerability is classified as CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime), a memory management flaw where the application fails to release allocated memory after the memory is no longer needed. In the context of Android-ImageMagick7, this issue allows attackers to trigger memory consumption through specially crafted image processing requests.
The vulnerability is network-accessible and requires no privileges or user interaction to exploit. An attacker can repeatedly send malicious requests to an application utilizing the vulnerable library, causing progressive memory accumulation until the application or device becomes unresponsive. While the vulnerability does not directly compromise data confidentiality or integrity, it can completely disrupt service availability.
Root Cause
The root cause lies in improper memory management within the Android-ImageMagick7 library. When processing certain operations, the library allocates memory buffers but fails to properly deallocate them after processing completes. This creates a memory leak where memory consumption grows unbounded with each operation, eventually exhausting available system resources.
Memory management issues are particularly critical in Android environments where resources are constrained, and applications must efficiently manage memory to prevent system-wide performance degradation.
Attack Vector
The attack vector is network-based, allowing remote exploitation without requiring authentication or user interaction. An attacker can craft malicious image files or processing requests that trigger the memory leak condition. By repeatedly sending such requests, the attacker can cause:
- Progressive memory exhaustion on the target device
- Application slowdown and eventual unresponsiveness
- Denial of service affecting the target application and potentially other applications on the device
- Device instability in severe cases
The vulnerability is exploitable through any application interface that utilizes the affected Android-ImageMagick7 library for image processing operations.
Detection Methods for CVE-2026-33852
Indicators of Compromise
- Abnormal memory consumption patterns in applications using Android-ImageMagick7
- Gradual increase in resident memory usage without corresponding decrease after image processing operations
- Application crashes with out-of-memory errors in image processing components
- Device performance degradation correlating with image processing activities
Detection Strategies
- Monitor memory allocation and deallocation patterns in applications using Android-ImageMagick7
- Implement resource monitoring to detect abnormal memory growth trends
- Review application logs for out-of-memory exceptions associated with image processing
- Perform static analysis on applications to identify use of vulnerable Android-ImageMagick7 versions
Monitoring Recommendations
- Establish baseline memory usage metrics for applications utilizing Android-ImageMagick7
- Configure alerts for memory usage exceeding normal operational thresholds
- Implement application-level health checks that monitor memory consumption
- Enable crash reporting to capture memory exhaustion incidents for forensic analysis
How to Mitigate CVE-2026-33852
Immediate Actions Required
- Update Android-ImageMagick7 to version 7.1.2-11 or later
- Audit applications to identify all instances of the vulnerable library
- Implement memory limits and resource quotas for image processing operations
- Consider temporarily disabling or restricting image processing functionality in critical applications until patching is complete
Patch Information
The vulnerability has been addressed in Android-ImageMagick7 version 7.1.2-11. Details regarding the fix can be found in the GitHub Pull Request #191 which contains the memory management corrections.
Developers should update their dependencies to include the patched version:
- Verify the current version of Android-ImageMagick7 in your project dependencies
- Update to version 7.1.2-11 or later
- Rebuild and test applications to ensure compatibility
Workarounds
- Implement application-level memory monitoring with automatic restarts when thresholds are exceeded
- Add rate limiting to image processing endpoints to reduce the frequency of potential exploit attempts
- Configure resource isolation to prevent memory exhaustion from affecting other system components
- Implement input validation to reject unusually large or malformed image files before processing
# Check current Android-ImageMagick7 version in Gradle dependencies
./gradlew dependencies | grep android-imagemagick7
# Update to patched version in build.gradle
# implementation 'com.github.MolotovCherry:Android-ImageMagick7:7.1.2-11'
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
