How severe is CVE-2026-112405?

No CVSS score has been assigned to CVE-2026-112405 yet. Review the advisory details and affected package list to assess your exposure.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2026-112405?

CVE-2026-112405 affects the following packages: pillow (PyPI). Ecosystems affected: PyPI.

How do I fix CVE-2026-112405?

Update pillow to 13.0.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-112405 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2026-112405 in my PyPI dependencies?

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.

How do I mitigate CVE-2026-112405 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.

Is CVE-2026-112405 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2026-112405 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2026-112405?

CVE-2026-112405 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.3%, placing it in the 21th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2026-112405?

CVE-2026-112405 is classified as NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2026-112405 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2026-112405 was published on October 19, 2026 and was last updated on October 24, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐍 PyPI

Not in CISA KEV

CVE-2026-112405 — pillow

Fix: python-pillow/Pillow@b6ee66e

CVE-2026-112405 is a NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in pillow. A fix is available for pillow — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Pillow: NULL pointer dereference in Image.merge via an unvalidated band 0

Also known asGHSA-cp9v-662q-vvx9

Published

Oct 19, 2026

Updated

Oct 24, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Oct 23, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

Proof-of-concept exploit code exists

CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-112405.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.3%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs21th percentile — riskier than 21% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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

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

Summary

Image.merge() checks the mode of every input band except band 0. If band 0 is a single-band I or F image, the native merge routine reads a pixel pointer that is NULL for those modes and the process crashes. The IPTC plugin reaches this from a plain Image.open() followed by a load, and IPTC has no magic-byte prefilter, so a crafted file with no recognizable header can drive it.

Details

The validation loop skips band 0:

src/PIL/Image.py:3795 iterates for band in bands[1:] and checks mode and size only for those.

For an I or F image the 8-bit plane image8 is NULL (only image32 is set). ImagingMerge dereferences bands[0]->image8[y] for the multi-band output modes:

src/libImaging/Bands.c:302, :311, :321

The IPTC loader builds the band list from an attacker-typed sub-image and passes it to merge with the sub-image at index 0:

src/PIL/IptcImagePlugin.py:156-160
src/PIL/IptcImagePlugin.py:169 registers the opener with no accept function.

PoC

from PIL import Image

# Band 0 is a single-band "I" image: its image8 plane is NULL. merge() validates only
# bands[1:], so the native ImagingMerge dereferences the NULL plane for band 0.
band0 = Image.new("I", (4, 4))
Image.merge("RGB", [band0, Image.new("L", (4, 4)), Image.new("L", (4, 4))])

Run it:

$ python 02_poc.py
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

Observed on a source build of commit 3e2ab96.

Under AddressSanitizer:

==ERROR: AddressSanitizer: SEGV on unknown address 0x000000000000
    #0 ImagingMerge   src/libImaging/Bands.c:311
    #1 _merge         src/_imaging.c:2492
SUMMARY: AddressSanitizer: SEGV src/libImaging/Bands.c:311 in ImagingMerge

The null address confirms the dereference of the missing image8 plane for band 0.

Impact

NULL pointer dereference in a C extension. A crafted file opened and loaded through the IPTC path crashes the worker process. This is a hard crash, not a Python exception an application can catch.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐍PyPI	`pillow`	≥ 12.0.0&&< 13.0.0	13.0.0`pip install --upgrade 'pillow==13.0.0'`

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

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.
Fix
Update pillow to 13.0.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-112405 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.

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 HatImportant

Workaround published by Red Hat

--- CME Mitigation Guidance (2026-10-20) --- Disclaimer: The following mitigation solutions are provided as a courtesy, pending the application of an official patch. This content was generated utilizing AI tools in conjunction with data from https://cmetaxonomy.org. Customers are advised to independently evaluate and test these temporary mitigations within their own infrastructure. The highest-value action is to validate all input image bands to reject 4-byte pixel sizes and 32-bit storage modes prior to invoking Image.merge(): upgrade to Pillow 13.0.0 (or the fixed Python Pillow/Python3.11 Pillow/Rhoai/Odh Openvino Model Server Rhel/Rhelai3/Bootc Cuda Rhel/Rhelai3/Bootc Gaudi…

Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2026-112405 (CC BY 4.0)

Frequently Asked Questions

### Summary `Image.merge()` checks the mode of every input band except band 0. If band 0 is a single-band `I` or `F` image, the native merge routine reads a pixel pointer that is NULL for those modes and the process crashes. The IPTC plugin reaches this from a plain `Image.open()` followed by a load, and IPTC has no magic-byte prefilter, so a crafted file with no recognizable header can drive it. ### Details The validation loop skips band 0: - `src/PIL/Image.py:3795` iterates `for band in bands[1:]` and checks mode and size only for those. For an `I` or `F` image the 8-bit plane `image8` is

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