CVE-2025-57812

CUPS is a standards-based, open-source printing system, and libcupsfilters contains the code of the filters of the former cups-filters package as library functions to be used for the data format conversion tasks needed in Printer Applications. In CUPS-Filters versions up to and including 1.28.17 and libscupsfilters versions 2.0.0 through 2.1.1, CUPS-Filterss imagetoraster filter has an out of bounds read/write vulnerability in the processing of TIFF image files. While the pixel buffer is allocated with the number of pixels times a pre-calculated bytes-per-pixel value, the function which processes these pixels is called with a size of the number of pixels times 3. When suitable inputs are passed, the bytes-per-pixel value can be set to 1 and bytes outside of the buffer bounds get processed. In order to trigger the bug, an attacker must issue a print job with a crafted TIFF file, and pass appropriate print job options to control the bytes-per-pixel value of the output format. They must choose a printer configuration under which the imagetoraster filter or its C-function equivalent cfFilterImageToRaster() gets invoked. The vulnerability exists in both CUPS-Filters 1.x and the successor library libcupsfilters (CUPS-Filters 2.x). In CUPS-Filters 2.x, the vulnerable function is _cfImageReadTIFF() in libcupsfilters. When this function is invoked as part of cfFilterImageToRaster(), the caller passes a look-up-table during whose processing the out of bounds memory access happens. In CUPS-Filters 1.x, the equivalent functions are all found in the cups-filters repository, which is not split into subprojects yet, and the vulnerable code is in _cupsImageReadTIFF(), which is called through cupsImageOpen() from the imagetoraster tool. A patch is available in commit b69dfacec7f176281782e2f7ac44f04bf9633cfa.

Weakness

The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.

Potential Mitigations

• Assume all input is malicious. Use an “accept known good” input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.
• When performing input validation, consider all potentially relevant properties, including length, type of input, the full range of acceptable values, missing or extra inputs, syntax, consistency across related fields, and conformance to business rules. As an example of business rule logic, “boat” may be syntactically valid because it only contains alphanumeric characters, but it is not valid if the input is only expected to contain colors such as “red” or “blue.”
• Do not rely exclusively on looking for malicious or malformed inputs. This is likely to miss at least one undesirable input, especially if the code’s environment changes. This can give attackers enough room to bypass the intended validation. However, denylists can be useful for detecting potential attacks or determining which inputs are so malformed that they should be rejected outright.
• To reduce the likelihood of introducing an out-of-bounds read, ensure that you validate and ensure correct calculations for any length argument, buffer size calculation, or offset. Be especially careful of relying on a sentinel (i.e. special character such as NUL) in untrusted inputs.

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/540.html

References

• https://github.com/OpenPrinting/cups-filters/blob/3c58463e341b12c9d30d7d3807d2bac1bc595a78/cupsfilters/image-tiff.c#L34
• https://github.com/OpenPrinting/cups-filters/blob/3c58463e341b12c9d30d7d3807d2bac1bc595a78/filter/imagetoraster.c#L613
• https://github.com/OpenPrinting/libcupsfilters/blob/33421982e10f6a14bc0bab03b80c9cf4660e8d7d/cupsfilters/image-tiff.c#L32
• https://github.com/OpenPrinting/libcupsfilters/commit/b69dfacec7f176281782e2f7ac44f04bf9633cfa
• https://github.com/OpenPrinting/libcupsfilters/security/advisories/GHSA-jpxg-qc2c-hgv4
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/11/12/1