CVE-2026-33020 PUBLISHED

libsixel: Integer Overflow in write_png_to_file() leads to Heap-based Buffer Overflow

Assigner: GitHub_M
Reserved: 17.03.2026 Published: 14.04.2026 Updated: 15.04.2026

libsixel is a SIXEL encoder/decoder implementation derived from kmiya's sixel. Versions 1.8.7 and prior contain an integer overflow which leads to a heap buffer overflow via sixel_frame_convert_to_rgb888() in frame.c, where allocation size and pointer offset computations for palettised images (PAL1, PAL2, PAL4) are performed using int arithmetic before casting to size_t. For images whose pixel count exceeds INT_MAX / 4, the overflow produces an undersized heap allocation for the conversion buffer and a negative pointer offset for the normalization sub-buffer, after which sixel_helper_normalize_pixelformat() writes the full image data starting from the invalid pointer, causing massive heap corruption confirmed by ASAN. An attacker providing a specially crafted large palettised PNG can corrupt the heap of the victim process, resulting in a reliable crash and potential arbitrary code execution. This issue has been fixed in version 1.8.7-r1.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
CVSS Score: 7.1

Product Status

Vendor saitoha
Product libsixel
Versions
  • Version < 1.8.7-r1 is affected

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-122: Heap-based Buffer Overflow CWE
  • CWE-190: Integer Overflow or Wraparound CWE