Software Engineering Institute

SuSe LibTIFF is a library used to encode and decode images in Tag Image File Format (TIFF) format on SuSE systems. A lack of input validation in the OJPEG (old JPEG) handling routine, OJPEGVSetField (in libtiff/tif_ojpeg.c), may cause a heap-based buffer overflow. Consequently, a remote attacker may be able to exploit this vulnerability by supplying an application using LibTIFF with a specially crafted TIFF image.

Please note that OJPEG support is enabled by default in versions of the SuSE LibTIFF library without the latest security updates (announced at SUSE-SA:2004:038) installed.

If a remote attacker can persuade a user to access a specially crafted TIFF image, that attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the application linked to LibTIFF.

Update SuSE

There is currently no patch available to resolve this issue. Please see the workarounds below for mitigation tactics. SuSE has released updates that disable OJPEG support as part of SuSE Security Announcement SUSE-SA:2004:03.

Disable OJPEG support

Until an update can be applied, you may wish to disable OJPEG support. To do this, the LibTIFF libraries will have to be recompiled with OJPEG support disabled.

Do Not Accept TIFF Images from Untrusted Sources

Exploitation occurs by accessing a specially crafted TIFF image. By only accessing TIFF images from trusted or known sources, the chances of exploitation are reduced.