CVE Alert: CVE-2025-52456 – SAIL Image Decoding Library – SAIL Image Decoding Library
CVE-2025-52456
A memory corruption vulnerability exists in the WebP Image Decoding functionality of the SAIL Image Decoding Library v0.9.8. When loading a specially crafted .webp animation an integer overflow can be made to occur when calculating the stride for decoding. Afterwards, this will cause a heap-based buffer to overflow when decoding the image which can lead to remote code execution. An attacker will need to convince the library to read a file to trigger this vulnerability.
AI Summary Analysis
Risk verdict
High risk: remote code execution possible via crafted WebP decoding, with a PoC available and network-remote potential requiring user interaction.
Why this matters
A successful exploit could give an attacker control over the host process decoding images, jeopardising confidentiality, integrity and availability. Any service or application that embeds this image-decoding library and handles user-supplied WebP content is at direct risk, including media servers, content platforms and mobile apps.
Most likely attack path
Attacker delivers a specially crafted WebP file over the network; the victim or an associated application loads the file and triggers the library’s decoding path. The exploit relies on user interaction (opening or processing the file), with no privileges required and the scope remaining within the affected process, leading to heap-based corruption and potential remote code execution.
Who is most exposed
Deployments that integrate image decoding libraries into user-facing components or content pipelines—web services, CMS backends, media processing services and mobile apps that accept or fetch user-supplied WebP images.
Detection ideas
- Crashes or stalls in the WebP decode path with heap/ allocator errors; heap corruption traces.
- Memory corruption faults (segmentation faults) during image loading.
- Logs showing decoding of anomalously large or crafted WebP payloads.
- Indicators of failed image decoding attempts followed by abnormal resource usage.
- PoC-specific payloads observed attempting WebP decode in exposed endpoints.
Mitigation and prioritisation
- Apply vendor patched release or upgrade to a version that fixes the overflow.
- If upgrading is not feasible, disable or sandbox WebP decoding where possible; constrain decoding to trusted inputs.
- Enforce strict input validation and content filtering for image uploads or streams.
- Run vulnerable components with least privilege and run inside memory-protected, isolated environments.
- Coordinate with change-management to test compatibility and monitor for related CVEs and vendor advisories.
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