A heap‑based buffer overflow occurs in GIMP’s DirectDraw Surface loader when it processes a crafted DDS image. When loading the image, buffer sizes derived from width, height, and pitch are computed using 32‑bit arithmetic that overflows, causing an under‑allocated buffer that is too small for the pixel data GEGL writes. The resulting heap corruption can lead to arbitrary code execution inside the GIMP process.

The flaw is present in the GIMP packages shipped on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 – all major releases that bundle the vulnerable GIMP binary. Users running these distributions and installing the default GIMP installation are therefore exposed, regardless of the specific kernel or user‑land mitigations applied.

The CVSS base score of 7.8 classifies the vulnerability as high severity. The EPSS score of 0.0015 (<1%) indicates a very low probability of exploitation, and the flaw is not listed in CISA’s KEV catalog. Exploitation requires the attacker to supply a malicious DDS image to the GIMP process, typically by tricking a user or via automated image handling scripts. Hardening measures such as full RELRO, PIE, ASLR, FORTIFY_SOURCE, and heap allocator protections raise the bar for successful exploitation but do not close the underlying vulnerability.