CVE-2026-45696
HIGH 8.3OpenEXR is the reference implementation and specification for the EXR image format, widely used in the motion picture industry. In versions 3.4.0 through 3.4.11, the HTJ2K (High-Throughput JPEG 2000) decoder, ht_undo_impl() in OpenEXRCore is vulnerable to a heap-buffer-overflow READ. The ht_undo_imp function copies decoded pixels out of a per-line OpenJPH buffer using the EXR channel's declared width as the iteration count. The codestream embedded in the EXR chunk can declare different (smaller) tile/line dimensions than the EXR header advertises, but ht_undo_impl() does not validate this — it pulls width 32-bit samples from cur_line->i32[] without checking the OpenJPH line buffer's actual length. A crafted EXR file produces a 4-byte heap-buffer-overflow READ immediately after a buffer allocated by ojph::local::codestream::finalize_alloc(). The bug is reachable through the standard scanline-decode entry point used by every consumer of exr_decoding_run/Imf::checkOpenEXRFile, including thumbnailers, asset pipelines, and the exrcheck utility — i.e. any application that opens untrusted EXR files. The result is a deterministic crash (DoS) and potential adjacent-heap leak. This issue has been fixed in version 3.4.12.
Severe if exploited (CVSS 8.3), but no known exploitation and low modeled probability. Patch on a normal cadence.
Exploitation likelihood
0.3%chance of exploitation in 30 days · 18th percentile
Impact if exploited
8.3CVSS 4.0 · HIGH
- ConfidentialityNone
- IntegrityNone
- AvailabilityHigh
What an attacker needs
- ✓Access: Reachable over the network — no local access needed
- ⚠Privileges: Requires a low-privilege account
- ✓User interaction: No user interaction needed
- ✓Complexity: No special conditions — reliably repeatable
- ✓Requirements: No special attack requirements
✓ lowers the bar for an attacker · ⚠ raises it
Affected
Vendors Academysoftwarefoundation Red Hat
Products Openexr Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Weakness (CWE)
- CWE-122
- CWE-125: Out-of-bounds read
CVSS vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:H
References
Technical & other
- https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/openexr/security/advisories/GHSA-gjpj-qv64-vwhf
- https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/openexr/releases/tag/v3.4.12
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-45696
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2490597
- https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-45696.json