CVE-2026-40169 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.2) CWE-122 vulnerability in Magick.NET-Q16-AnyCPU. A fix is available for Magick.NET-Q16-AnyCPU — see the affected versions and patch details below.
ImageMagick: Heap buffer overflow (WRITE) in the YAML and JSON encoders
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-40169.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2026-40169 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 376,715 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
Magick.NET-Q16-AnyCPU.NETMagick.NET-Q16-HDRI-AnyCPU.NETMagick.NET-Q16-HDRI-OpenMP-arm64.NETMagick.NET-Q16-HDRI-arm64.NETMagick.NET-Q16-HDRI-x64.NETMagick.NET-Q16-HDRI-x86.NETMagick.NET-Q16-OpenMP-arm64.NETMagick.NET-Q16-OpenMP-x64+9 moreReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects NuGet packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
ImageMagick is free and open-source software used for editing and manipulating digital images. In versions below 7.1.2-19, a crafted image could result in an out of bounds heap write when writing a yaml or json output, resulting in a crash. This issue has been fixed in version 7.1.2-19.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| .NETNuGet | Magick.NET-Q16-AnyCPU | all versions | 14.12.0dotnet add package Magick.NET-Q16-AnyCPU --version 14.12.0 |
| .NETNuGet | Magick.NET-Q16-HDRI-AnyCPU | all versions | 14.12.0dotnet add package Magick.NET-Q16-HDRI-AnyCPU --version 14.12.0 |
| .NETNuGet | Magick.NET-Q16-HDRI-OpenMP-arm64 | all versions | 14.12.0dotnet add package Magick.NET-Q16-HDRI-OpenMP-arm64 --version 14.12.0 |
| .NETNuGet | Magick.NET-Q16-HDRI-arm64 | all versions | 14.12.0dotnet add package Magick.NET-Q16-HDRI-arm64 --version 14.12.0 |
| .NETNuGet | Magick.NET-Q16-HDRI-x64 | all versions | 14.12.0dotnet add package Magick.NET-Q16-HDRI-x64 --version 14.12.0 |
| .NETNuGet | Magick.NET-Q16-HDRI-x86 | all versions | 14.12.0dotnet add package Magick.NET-Q16-HDRI-x86 --version 14.12.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for Magick.NET-Q16-AnyCPU, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update Magick.NET-Q16-AnyCPU to 14.12.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-40169 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.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2026-40169 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-40169. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-40169 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-40169 across NuGet dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.