Pillow EpsImagePlugin negative %%BeginBinary byte count causes infinite loop denial of service
Priority HIGH 72CWE-835Published · Updated
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 11 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA, GitHub and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-835.
Summary
Pillow is a Python imaging library. From 12.0.0 through 12.2.0, Pillow's EPS parser in PIL/EpsImagePlugin.py accepts a negative byte count in the %%BeginBinary directive, allowing a crafted EPS file to cause Image.open() to seek backwards to the same directive and parse it repeatedly in an infinite loop. This issue is fixed in version 12.3.0.
Why it matters now
Exploitation Proof of concept CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00399 34th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Public exploit Yes 1 exploit referenceTagged by NVD
Fix Partial Pillow (python-pillow): 12.3.0pillow (PyPI): 12.3.0Red Hat: 11 without a fix
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Poc
- Automatable
- Yes
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| python-pillow | Pillow | 12.0.0 to before 12.3.0 | 12.3.0 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | pillow (PyPI) | 12.0.0 to before 12.3.0 | 12.3.0 | Patch available | GHSA-pg7v-jwj7-p798 |
- Pillow Vendorpython-pillow Affected 12.0.0 to before 12.3.0 Fixed in 12.3.0 Patch available CNA
- pillow (PyPI) Vendor— Affected 12.0.0 to before 12.3.0 Fixed in 12.3.0 Patch available GHSA-pg7v-jwj7-p798
CPE configurations NVD · 1
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:a:python:pillow:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 12.0.0 to before 12.3.0 | Vulnerable | python-pillow |
- cpe:2.3:a:python:pillow:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 12.0.0 to before 12.3.0 Vulnerable ·python-pillow
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Pillow (python-pillow) Fixed in 12.3.0
- Fix · GHSA-pg7v-jwj7-p798 pillow (PyPI) Fixed in 12.3.0 Advisory →
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Exploit Intelligence | Affected | — |
| Lightspeed Core | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| OpenShift Lightspeed | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat AI Inference Server | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2 | Affected | — |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | — |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | — |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI (RHEL AI) 3 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI) | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Quay 3 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Satellite 6 | Affected | — |
Not affected: 2 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI (RHEL AI) 3
- Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI)
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-59203
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-pg7v-jwj7-p798
References
Patch 2
More python-pillow Pillow vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-76627 Out-of-bounds read in Pillow TIFF encoder ColorMap handling CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.8
- TI-2026-76625 Quadratic-time denial of service in Pillow PDF save_all CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
- TI-2026-76605 NULL pointer dereference in Pillow's Image.merge function CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
- TI-2026-76604 Out-of-bounds read in Pillow TIFF decoding leaks heap memory CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.8
- TI-2026-76602 Double free in Pillow ImagingScaleAffine on allocation failure CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
- TI-2026-76600 GIF seek in Pillow keeps rejected size, allowing denial of service CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
Sources
- CVE-2026-59203 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-59203 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-pg7v-jwj7-p798 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-59203 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences