{"id":"CVE-2026-114501","aliases":["GHSA-654x-cwwv-5j9c","BIT-pillow-2026-114501","PYSEC-2026-4336"],"title":"Pillow: Arrow export leaks stale heap memory when PILLOW_ALIGNMENT > 1","summary":"Pillow: Arrow export leaks stale heap memory when PILLOW_ALIGNMENT > 1","severity":"medium","cvss":5.3,"cvssVector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N","vendor":"pillow","product":"pillow","ecosystem":"pip","affected":["pillow >= 11.2.1, < 13.0.0"],"patched":["pillow 13.0.0"],"published":"2026-10-23","updated":"2026-10-29","sourceUpdated":"2026-10-29T10:56:00.934076155Z","source":"OSV","sourceUrl":"https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-654x-cwwv-5j9c","references":[{"url":"https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/security/advisories/GHSA-654x-cwwv-5j9c"},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-114501"},{"url":"https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/pull/10172"},{"url":"https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/commit/19f64946eb247b973dd4560be7dea3bf979d2e6a"},{"url":"https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow"},{"url":"https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/releases/tag/13.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-654x-cwwv-5j9c"}],"tags":["osv","pip","ghsa","cve.org"],"cvssSource":"osv","epss":0.0037,"epssPercentile":0.30825,"cwe":["CWE-226","CWE-908"],"scores":{"osv":5.3,"cna":6.3},"ingestedAt":"2026-10-21T22:18:33.753Z","slug":"CVE-2026-114501","body":"## Overview\n\n### Summary\n\nWhen [`PILLOW_ALIGNMENT`](https://pillow.readthedocs.io/en/stable/reference/block_allocator.html#memory-pools) is set above 1, exporting an image to Arrow returns uninitialized heap memory mixed in with the pixel data. That memory can include pixels from images the process freed earlier. \n\n### Details\n\nWith an alignment above 1, the default allocator pads each row up to `aligned_linesize` and starts the first row at an aligned offset into the block. It then exports `im->blocks[0].ptr` as `xsize * ysize` tightly packed pixels, so exported data includes the padding bytes, and can include a few bytes from before the first row.\n\nTested vulnerable on 11.2.1, 12.3.0, 4c1ed27a5.\n\n### PoC\n\nWhether things leak may depend on allocator configuration. This does show a leak on my Mac.\n\n```python\nimport os\n\nos.environ[\"PILLOW_ALIGNMENT\"] = \"64\"\n\nfrom PIL import Image\n\n# Image A: 64 px wide, so its rows fill the whole aligned stride\na = Image.new(\"L\", (64, 40), 0x41).transpose(Image.Transpose.FLIP_LEFT_RIGHT)\ndel a\n\n# Image B: 61 px wide, so each row has 3 bytes of padding; its pixels are all 0\nb = Image.new(\"L\", (61, 40), 0).transpose(Image.Transpose.FLIP_LEFT_RIGHT)\n\ntry:\n    exported = Image.fromarrow(b, b.mode, b.size).tobytes()\nexcept ValueError as e:\n    print(\"Not vulnerable:\", e)\nelse:\n    if leaked := len(exported) - exported.count(0):\n        raise RuntimeError(f\"{leaked} of {len(exported)} exported bytes are not B's pixels\")\n```\n\n### Impact\n\nInformation disclosure for applications that set `PILLOW_ALIGNMENT` and export images to Arrow. Likely any image whose row length isn't a multiple of the alignment will do. In a service handling several users' images, one user's exported data can contain pixels from another user's image, or other stale heap contents.\n\n## Affected packages\n\n- `pillow >= 11.2.1, < 13.0.0`\n\n## Remediation\n\nUpgrade to a patched release:\n\n- `pillow 13.0.0`","depth":"sunlit","depthScore":29,"depthScoreParts":{"impact":29.2,"likelihood":0.1,"exploitation":0,"ransomware":0},"changes":[{"seq":230877,"id":"CVE-2026-114501","ts":1793214224540,"field":"cvss","old":"6.3","new":"5.3"}]}