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CVE PROGRAM SOURCE RECORD7.1 High

CVE-2026-96643

Pillow: PNG eXIf chunk makes EXIF parsing run in quadratic time

Description

Pillow is a Python imaging library. From 11.0.0 until 13.0.0, Exif.load() in src/PIL/Image.py repeatedly slices the remaining EXIF data while it begins with the six-byte Exif header. src/PIL/PngImagePlugin.py accepts an uncapped PNG eXIf chunk, so a file filled with repeated headers causes a new shrinking copy on every iteration and quadratic CPU work. The condition is reachable through Image.getexif(), Image._getexif(), and ImageOps.exif_transpose(), including common photo-upload rotation workflows. This issue is fixed in version 13.0.0.

Affected products

Version statuses are supplied by the assigning organization. Consult the original record for detailed ranges and platform conditions.

python-pillow Pillow

  • >= 11.0.0, < 13.0.0affected

References