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Public proof of concept

CVE-2023-45666

A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.

  • Published2023-10-21
  • WeaknessCWE-415

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

stb_image is a single file MIT licensed library for processing images. It may look like `stbi__load_gif_main` doesn’t give guarantees about the content of output value `*delays` upon failure. Although it sets `*delays` to zero at the beginning, it doesn’t do it in case the image is not recognized as GIF and a call to `stbi__load_gif_main_outofmem` only frees possibly allocated memory in `*delays` without resetting it to zero. Thus it would be fair to say the caller of `stbi__load_gif_main` is responsible to free the allocated memory in `*delays` only if `stbi__load_gif_main` returns a non null value. However at the same time the function may return null value, but fail to free the memory in `*delays` if internally `stbi__convert_format` is called and fails. Thus the issue may lead to a memory leak if the caller chooses to free `delays` only when `stbi__load_gif_main` didn’t fail or to a double-free if the `delays` is always freed

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2023-10-2100:15CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 21:37 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2023-45666?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2023-45666?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

CISA-ADP · NVD
Nothings stb image
BranchAffectedFixed in
2.28≤ 2.28no fix published
Nothings stb image.h
BranchAffectedFixed in
2.28= 2.28no fix published

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Fix

No fix published by the sources we read yet. NVD record

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
none listed
PoC-in-GitHub

Sources

  • CISA-ADPSSVC decisionpoc2024-09-12
  • OpenCVESSVC decisionpoc—
  • CNACVSS 3.17.3read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 3.19.8read 2026-10-23
  • CNAweakness (CWE)CWE-415read 2026-10-23
  • NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-415read 2026-10-23
  • FIRST EPSSEPSS score1.1 %2026-10-23

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2023-10-21
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-45666?

stb_image is a single file MIT licensed library for processing images. It may look like `stbi__load_gif_main` doesn’t give guarantees about the content of output value `*delays` upon failure. Although it sets `*delays` to zero at the beginning, it doesn’t do it in case the image is not recognized as GIF and a call to `stbi__load_gif_main_outofmem` only frees possibly allocated memory in `*delays` without resetting it to zero. Thus it would be fair to say the caller of `stbi__load_gif_main` is responsible to free the allocated memory in `*delays` only if `stbi__load_gif_main` returns a non null value. However at the same time the function may return null value, but fail to free the memory in `*delays` if internally `stbi__convert_format` is called and fails. Thus the issue may lead to a memory leak if the caller chooses to free `delays` only when `stbi__load_gif_main` didn’t fail or to a double-free if the `delays` is always freed

Is CVE-2023-45666 actively exploited?

A proof-of-concept exploit exists for CVE-2023-45666, but active exploitation has not been confirmed at this time.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2023-45666?

CVE-2023-45666 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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