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MEDIUM severity

CVE-2020-35655 — pillow

MEDIUMFix: python-pillow/Pillow@2f40926

CVE-2020-35655 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.4) Out-of-bounds Read vulnerability in pillow. A fix is available for pillow — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Pillow Out-of-bounds Read

Also known asBIT-pillow-2020-35655GHSA-hf64-x4gq-p99hPYSEC-2021-71
Published
Updated
Affected
1 pkg
Patched
1 / 1
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Oct 10, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
1.7%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk+0.02%
Lower risk than most CVEs76th percentile — riskier than 76% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
0.00%0.72%1.44%2.16%0.3%1.7%Apr 26Aug 26Oct 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2020-35655 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 385,738 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected
🐍pillow

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

In Pillow before 8.1.0, SGIRleDecode has a 4-byte buffer over-read when decoding crafted SGI RLE image files because offsets and length tables are mishandled.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
🐍PyPIpillow≥ 4.3.0&&< 8.1.08.1.0pip install --upgrade 'pillow==8.1.0'

Affected Products

2 products · 3 configurations
OS
fedorafedoraproject
2 versions
3233
Application
pillowpython
≥ 4.3.0 && < 8.1.0
range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for pillow, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

  2. Fix

    Update pillow to 8.1.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-35655 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. Workarounds

    Stop feeding it untrusted input: reject or quarantine files and payloads from unverified sources until you can upgrade, restrict accepted formats to the ones you actually need, and run the parsing or decoding step in a least-privileged sandbox or short-lived worker so a crash or corrupted read cannot reach the rest of the process.

Fixing This On Your OS

If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.

Red HatLow
ProductFixed inAdvisory
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8python-pillow-0:5.1.1-16.el8RHSA-2021:4149
UbuntuMEDIUM
USN-4697-1Ubuntu

Frequently Asked Questions

In Pillow before 8.1.0, SGIRleDecode has a 4-byte buffer over-read when decoding crafted SGI RLE image files because offsets and length tables are mishandled.
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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CVE-2020-35655: pillow — Fixed in 8.1.0