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Security Policy Bypass through config/policy-secure.xml via "fd handler" leads to stdin/stdout access

Moderate
dlemstra published GHSA-xwc6-v6g8-pw2h Feb 23, 2026

Package

ImageMagick (C/C++)

Affected versions

< 7.1.2-15
< 6.9.13-40

Patched versions

7.1.2-15
6.9.13-40

Description

The shipped “secure” security policy includes a rule intended to prevent reading/writing from standard streams:

<policy domain="path" rights="none" pattern="-"/>

However, ImageMagick also supports fd: pseudo-filenames (e.g., fd:0, fd:1). This path form is not blocked by the secure policy templates, and therefore bypasses the protection goal of “no stdin/stdout”.

To resolve this add the following change to your security policy.

<policy domain="path" rights="none" pattern="fd:*"/>

And this will also be included in our more secure policies by default.

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

CVE ID

CVE-2026-25966

Weaknesses

Improper Access Control

The product does not restrict or incorrectly restricts access to a resource from an unauthorized actor. Learn more on MITRE.