imagecli’s scale pipeline operation, implemented in the Scale::apply function, calculates output dimensions by multiplying the original width or height by a ratio supplied by the command line and parsed as a floating‑point number. The implementation performs this calculation as u32 without checking that the resulting value stays within any safe bounds, and it does not validate that the ratio itself falls within a reasonable range. Because no validation or bounding is performed, an attacker can supply an arbitrarily large ratio, causing the computed dimensions to demand an unrealistically large amount of memory. The resulting allocation attempt can exhaust system resources, leading to a process crash. Embedding imagecli into an application that accepts user‑controlled pipeline strings amplifies the risk, as a single request with a crafted ratio can remotely trigger a denial‑of‑service condition.

The vulnerable component is theimagecli tool maintained by theotherphil. The product can be used both as a standalone CLI for image processing and as a library that processes user‑supplied pipeline strings. No specific product versions are listed, but any instance that incorporates the current imagecli source code without applying bounds on the scale ratio is affected.

The vulnerability is scored 7.5 on the CVSS scale, indicating a high impact although no remote privilege escalation or data compromise is described. The EPSS score is below 1%, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog. The likely attack vector is through any application that accepts untrusted input to build an imagecli pipeline or by direct invocation of the CLI with a crafted ratio argument. A single request can exploit the bug, causing a crash and denial of service. Proper bounds checking or input validation would mitigate the risk.