Vulnerability record · CVE-2026-59981 · published 25 August 2026
CVE-2026-59981: Out-of-bounds read vulnerability
OpenEXR is the reference implementation and specification for the EXR image file format, widely used in the motion picture industry. In versions through 3.2.10, 3.3.0 through 3.3.12, and 3.4.0 through 3.4.13, the OpenEXRUtil library returns an out-of-bounds pointer from the SampleCountChannel::row() API when a deep image has a non-zero dataWindow origin. The row() accessor is documented as 0-based and computes its address from an internal base that is offset for absolute pixel coordinates, so the two coordinate models conflict whenever dataWindow.min is non-zero. For a deep image whose data window has a large negative vertical origin, row(0) points far outside the allocated sample-count buffer. An application that opens an attacker-controlled deep EXR file and accesses sample counts through row() performs an out-of-bounds read, which can crash the process or, under a controlled heap layout, return adjacent heap memory as sample-count values. This issue is fixed in versions 3.2.11, 3.3.13, and 3.4.14.
Description
OpenEXR is the reference implementation and specification for the EXR image file format, widely used in the motion picture industry. In versions through 3.2.10, 3.3.0 through 3.3.12, and 3.4.0 through 3.4.13, the OpenEXRUtil library returns an out-of-bounds pointer from the SampleCountChannel::row() API when a deep image has a non-zero dataWindow origin. The row() accessor is documented as 0-based and computes its address from an internal base that is offset for absolute pixel coordinates, so the two coordinate models conflict whenever dataWindow.min is non-zero. For a deep image whose data window has a large negative vertical origin, row(0) points far outside the allocated sample-count buffer. An application that opens an attacker-controlled deep EXR file and accesses sample counts through row() performs an out-of-bounds read, which can crash the process or, under a controlled heap layout, return adjacent heap memory as sample-count values. This issue is fixed in versions 3.2.11, 3.3.13, and 3.4.14.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H
References
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Related vulnerabilities
Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2026-59981), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-27). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.
