CVE-2023-44271: Pillow Denial of Service Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-8ghj-p4vj-mr35
Share
CVSS 7.5
CWE-400 CWE-770
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2023-44271 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.5) denial of service vulnerability (CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) affecting Pillow libraries in the PyPI ecosystem. The issue involves pillow denial of service vulnerability. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 10.0.0.

CVE-2023-44271 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2023-44271
GHSA Identifier GHSA-8ghj-p4vj-mr35
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 7.5
CWE Classification CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Affected Product Pillow
Package Ecosystem PyPI
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 7.5

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity None (I:N)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2023-44271

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Pillow dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

pillow fixed: 10.0.0 
pip install pillow>=10.0.0
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

pip show pillow

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Python environment is affected by CVE-2023-44271, inspect your installed packages using pip:

pip show pillow

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Pillow in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 10.0.0), your application is affected.

Note: The pip show pillow command checks currently installed packages in your active Python environment.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption, where the product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource. In Pillow, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

An issue was discovered in Pillow before 10.0.0. It is a Denial of Service that uncontrollably allocates memory to process a given task, potentially causing a service to crash by having it run out of memory. This occurs for truetype in ImageFont when textlength in an ImageDraw instance operates on a long text argument.

CVE-2023-44271 Affected Pillow Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
10.0.0
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
pillow
pypi/pillow
PyPI
< 10.0.0
10.0.0

References

NVD — CVE-2023-44271 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-44271
Pillow Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/pull/7244
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/commit/1fe1bb49c452b0318cad12ea9d97c3bef188e9a7
devhub.checkmarx.com/cve-details/cve-202... WEB
https://devhub.checkmarx.com/cve-details/CVE-2023-44271
Pillow Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/pillow/PYSEC-2023-227.yaml
Pillow Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow
lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce... WEB
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/03/msg00021.html
lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/packa... WEB
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/N2JOEDUJDQLCUII2LQYZYSM7RJL2I3P4

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2023-44271?
CVE-2023-44271 is a security vulnerability in Pillow involving Pillow Denial of Service vulnerability under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption.
Which Pillow versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 10.0.0 across affected packages: pillow.
What version fixes CVE-2023-44271?
Upgrading to 10.0.0 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is pillow affected?
Yes, pillow is affected in releases prior to 10.0.0. Upgrade your dependency to 10.0.0 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-44271?
CVE-2023-44271 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2023-44271?
CVE-2023-44271 is classified under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.).
How can I check PyPI dependencies for CVE-2023-44271?
Run the dependency tree command: 'pip show pillow'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-8ghj-p4vj-mr35",
  "modified" : "2024-10-14T21:20:48Z",
  "published" : "2023-11-03T06:36:30Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2023-44271" ],
  "summary" : "Pillow Denial of Service vulnerability",
  "details" : "An issue was discovered in Pillow before 10.0.0. It is a Denial of Service that uncontrollably allocates memory to process a given task, potentially causing a service to crash by having it run out of memory. This occurs for truetype in ImageFont when textlength in an ImageDraw instance operates on a long text argument.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  }, {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "PyPI",
      "name" : "pillow"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "10.0.0"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-44271"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/pull/7244"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/commit/1fe1bb49c452b0318cad12ea9d97c3bef188e9a7"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://devhub.checkmarx.com/cve-details/CVE-2023-44271"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/pillow/PYSEC-2023-227.yaml"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/03/msg00021.html"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/N2JOEDUJDQLCUII2LQYZYSM7RJL2I3P4"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-400", "CWE-770" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2023-11-03T19:39:43Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2023-11-03T05:15:30Z"
  }
}