Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Data Amplification) Affecting libheif package, versions <1.21.2-3ubuntu0.6


Severity

Recommended
medium

Based on Ubuntu security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.52% (42nd percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-UBUNTU2604-LIBHEIF-20028829
  • published25 Sept 2026
  • disclosed18 Sept 2026

Introduced: 18 Sep 2026

NewCVE-2026-84384  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-409  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

Upgrade Ubuntu:26.04 libheif to version 1.21.2-3ubuntu0.6 or higher.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream libheif package and not the libheif package as distributed by Ubuntu. See How to fix? for Ubuntu:26.04 relevant fixed versions and status.

libheif is a HEIF and AVIF file format decoder and encoder. From 1.19.0 until 1.23.2, crafted HEIF or AVIF mime metadata and unci image data can cause decompress_brotli() and do_inflate() to grow accumulated output without an effective size limit or MemoryHandle accounting. The brotli path has no output bound, while the zlib path checks only a small temporary buffer in a branch that valid streams do not reach, and overlapping icef units can decompress the same payload repeatedly. HeifContext::interpret_heif_file_images() processes multiple compressed metadata items during file opening, allowing a small file to consume unbounded memory and terminate the process. This issue is fixed in version 1.23.2.

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1