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Fencer Intel
high 7.5

CVE-2019-16865 json

DOS attack in Pillow when processing specially crafted image files

published 2019-10-04 7 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also GHSA-j7mj-748x-7p78 , PYSEC-2019-110 , EUVD-2019-0102

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
3.1%
EPSS 3.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 87%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

An issue was discovered in Pillow before 6.2.0. When reading specially crafted invalid image files, the library can either allocate very large amounts of memory or take an extremely long period of time to process the image.

Patch / fix

  • pypi pillow 6.2.0
  • python pillow 6.2.0
  • pillow Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 6.2.0-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2019-16865

  • pillow Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 3.1.2-0ubuntu1.3
  • pillow Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 5.1.0-1ubuntu0.2
  • pillow Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 2.3.0-1ubuntu3.4+esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2019-16865

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • python-pillow RHEL 7 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7
  • python-pillow-qt RHEL 7 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7
  • python-pillow-tk RHEL 7 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7
  • python-pillow-sane RHEL 7 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7
  • python-pillow RHEL 8 5.1.1-10.el8_1
  • python3-pillow RHEL 8 5.1.1-10.el8_1
  • python-pillow RHEL 8.0 E4S 5.1.1-10.el8_0
  • python3-pillow RHEL 8.0 E4S 5.1.1-10.el8_0

red hat advisories RHSA-2020:0578RHSA-2020:0580RHSA-2020:0566

  • kibana OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9, OpenStack Cloud 9 4.6.3-4.3.2
  • grafana OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9, OpenStack Cloud 9 6.2.5-3.12.2
  • ansible1 OpenStack Cloud 9 1.9.6-9.7.2
  • ardana-mq OpenStack Cloud 9 9.0+git.1593618110.cbd1a37-3.16.2
  • crowbar-core OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9 6.0+git.1594619891.b75a61d0d-3.25.5
  • rubygem-puma OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9 2.16.0-4.9.1
  • ardana-glance OpenStack Cloud 9 9.0+git.1593631708.9354a78-3.13.2
  • ardana-manila OpenStack Cloud 9 9.0+git.1594158642.b5905e4-3.12.2

suse advisories SUSE-RU-2020:2161-1SUSE-RU-2020:2072-1SUSE-SU-2020:2057-1SUSE-SU-2020:1901-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2019-16865 updated cvss 7.5

python-pillow: reading specially crafted image files leads to allocation of large amounts of memory and denial of service

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 python-imaging Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 python-imaging, python-imaging-tk, python-imaging-sane
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Quay 3 quay
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) python-pillow 5.1.1-10.el8_1, python3-pillow 5.1.1-10.el8_1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0580
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream E4S (v. 8.0) python-pillow 5.1.1-10.el8_0, python3-pillow 5.1.1-10.el8_0
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0566
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) python-pillow 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) python-pillow 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7, python-pillow-qt 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7, python-pillow-tk 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7, python-pillow-sane 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) python-pillow 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7, python-pillow-qt 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7, python-pillow-tk 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7, python-pillow-sane 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) python-pillow 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) python-pillow 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7, python-pillow-qt 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7, python-pillow-tk 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7, python-pillow-sane 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) python-pillow 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7
    +1 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) python-pillow 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7, python-pillow-qt 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7, python-pillow-tk 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7, python-pillow-sane 2.0.0-20.gitd1c6db8.el7_7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0578

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

3.13% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 87% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 5.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
GitHub 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
pypi pillow
<6.2.0
6.2.0

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.