# CVE-2026-128066: Pillow: Memory DoS in TIFF and EXIF IFD parsing via overlapping tag data

Status: published. Published: 2026-11-12. Updated: 2026-11-12.

Pillow is a Python imaging library. From 1.0 through 12.3.0, ImageFileDirectory_v2.load() in src/PIL/TiffImagePlugin.py retains a separate bytes object for each out-of-line IFD tag value without limiting the total data read or preventing distinct tags from referencing the same file region. A small crafted TIFF or EXIF-bearing JPEG, PNG, WebP, or MPO can therefore cause memory use quadratic in the input size. TIFF and some JPEG paths trigger parsing during Image.open(), while other formats are exposed when EXIF is requested, including through getexif() or ImageOps.exif_transpose(). The declared pixel dimensions do not bound this metadata allocation, so decompression-bomb checks do not prevent process memory exhaustion. This issue is fixed in version 13.0.0.

## Remediation

No remediation reported in collected sources

## Affected products and versions

- python-pillow / Pillow: >= 1.0, < 13.0.0 (affected). Source: CNA: GitHub_M

## Severity and prioritization

- CVSS 4.0: 8.7 (high); 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; source: CNA: GitHub_M

- CISA KEV: No listing in collected sources

- EPSS: Not available

- SSVC: Not available

- Weaknesses: CWE-770

## Exploit evidence

No exploit evidence in collected sources. This is not proof of no exploitation.

## References

- https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/security/advisories/GHSA-wqgw-9xfh-qf2g (CNA: GitHub_M; x_refsource_CONFIRM)

- https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/commit/4908edaf7f416616784c7c03d8c1a60153710ffb (CNA: GitHub_M; x_refsource_MISC)

- https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/commit/4b63dffd8a6d980fa0e21b40832fa6cbf033eacf (CNA: GitHub_M; x_refsource_MISC)

- https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/releases/tag/13.0.0 (CNA: GitHub_M; x_refsource_MISC)

## Provenance

- CNA: GitHub_M: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-128066; retrieved 2026-11-12; source updated 2026-11-12

Revision: cde667846061dfb5bb6ca396b2865a2c7b1250637cb6e7228752f5a8976bb620

Canonical: https://y2.dev/cve/CVE-2026-128066

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