CVE-2025-61146
📋 TL;DR
CVE-2025-61146 is a memory leak vulnerability in saitoha libsixel's malloc_stub.c component. This vulnerability allows attackers to cause gradual memory exhaustion in applications using vulnerable libsixel versions, potentially leading to denial of service. Affected users include anyone using libsixel for SIXEL graphics processing in their applications.
💻 Affected Systems
- saitoha libsixel
📦 What is this software?
Libsixel by Libsixel Project
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Sustained exploitation could lead to complete memory exhaustion, causing application crashes or system instability in memory-constrained environments.
Likely Case
Gradual memory consumption over time leading to degraded application performance and potential crashes during extended usage.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact with proper memory monitoring and restart policies in place.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires specific conditions to trigger the memory leak repeatedly. No known weaponized exploits exist.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: v1.8.8 and later
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/saitoha/libsixel/commit/e0ba6685262a3679cc5b9009c0c5b7dc8a3f262e
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Update libsixel to version 1.8.8 or later. 2. Recompile any applications using libsixel. 3. Restart affected services.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Memory monitoring and restart
allImplement memory usage monitoring and automatic restart policies for applications using libsixel
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict memory usage limits and automatic restart policies for affected applications
- Monitor system memory usage and restart services when memory consumption exceeds thresholds
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check libsixel version with 'libsixel-config --version' or examine package manager outputCheck Version:
libsixel-config --version || pkg-config --modversion libsixelVerify Fix Applied:
Verify version is 1.8.8 or later and test SIXEL processing functionality📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual memory growth patterns in application logs
- Application crashes with out-of-memory errors
Network Indicators:
- None specific - this is a local memory issue
SIEM Query:
Process memory usage exceeding normal thresholds for applications using libsixel