ImageMagick is a popular, free tool for handling images. A big reason for its popularity is how flexible and scriptable it is, letting users automate all sorts of image-related tasks. But like any software, bugs can creep in—and one of those bugs, tracked as CVE-2026-26983, could expose systems to serious trouble if left unchecked.

This article breaks down what CVE-2026-26983 is, how it can be exploited, what the risk is, and what you should do to stay safe. We’ll also look at some code snippets and link to official information.

What is CVE-2026-26983?

This vulnerability affects the MSL interpreter inside ImageMagick.
MSL (Magick Scripting Language) is a way to script image operations using XML. In affected ImageMagick versions, if someone feeds a specially-crafted invalid <map> element to the interpreter, ImageMagick may try to use an image *after* it has been freed in memory. That's called a use-after-free bug.

A use-after-free bug can cause crashes, data corruption, or even let attackers execute code of their choice. You don’t want that!

ImageMagick 6 series before 6.9.13-40

If you don’t update, and your server or service processes untrusted images or scripts with ImageMagick, you may be exposed.

How Does the Bug Work?

The bug is in the part of the code where ImageMagick parses MSL XML, specifically the <map> element. If the map is malformed in a certain way, the internal logic can inadvertently free (delete) an image object but still keep using it—leading to trouble.

Here’s a minimal malicious MSL script that can crash vulnerable versions

<image>
  <read filename="logo:" />
  <map>
    <!-- Intentionally malformed content to trigger bug -->
    <invalid />
  </map>
</image>

That’s *all* it could take. If you load this file with the MSL engine, the bug is triggered.

Suppose you save the XML above as evil.msl and run

magick "msl:evil.msl" output.png

On a vulnerable ImageMagick version, this command could crash (segmentation fault or similar), or potentially lead to other unpredictable behavior.

Attacker crafts an evil MSL XML file with an invalid <map>.

2. Victim processes it using ImageMagick’s MSL (maybe through a website that accepts XML MSL uploads or image batch tasks).

ImageMagick’s MSL interpreter tries to work with a freed image pointer.

4. This could cause a crash (denial of service), or potentially let the attacker run code (if the environment allows).

Note: The default ImageMagick install *may* or *may not* enable the MSL delegate. It's commonly present on servers for bulk operations or in automated pipelines.

Technical Details (For Devs)

The flaw is related to referencing an image pointer after its memory has been freed within the function that handles map processing. This is what developers call a "dangling pointer." In memory-unsafe languages like C, this opens the door to crashes or code execution via heap manipulation.

Relevant code commit:
You can see the fix at
https://github.com/ImageMagick/ImageMagick/commit/ab69b1c41ebc09b9e35340370c10b68bc1588e56

References

- ImageMagick Security Policy and Releases
- GitHub Commit Fix for CVE-2026-26983
- ImageMagick Changelog
- NVD Listing (Placeholder, as official entry may not be live yet)


## How to Fix / Mitigate

Immediate Solution:
Upgrade to ImageMagick 7.1.2-15 (or later), or in the 6 series to 6.9.13-40.

You can check your current version with

magick --version

Summary

CVE-2026-26983 in ImageMagick’s MSL interpreter is easy to trigger, can cause crashes, and could open the door to more severe exploits in some cases. The fix is available and easy to apply—so check your version now and update if needed.

If you want to see exactly what changed, check out this patch diff on GitHub.

Timeline

Published on: 02/24/2026 02:01:20 UTC
Last modified on: 02/24/2026 18:38:31 UTC