CVE-2023-1289: A vulnerability was discovered in ImageMagick where a specially created SVG file loads itself and causes a segmentation fault.

A vulnerability was discovered in ImageMagick where a specially created SVG file loads itself and causes a segmentation fault.

A vulnerability was discovered in ImageMagick where a specially created SVG file loads itself and causes a segmentation fault. This flaw allows a remote attacker to pass a specially crafted SVG file that leads to a segmentation fault, generating many trash files in "/tmp," resulting in a denial of service. When ImageMagick crashes, it generates a lot of trash files. These trash files can be large if the SVG file contains many render actions. In a denial of service attack, if a remote attacker uploads an SVG file of size t, ImageMagick generates files of size 103*t. If an attacker uploads a 100M SVG, the server will generate about 10G.

Description from the National Vulnerability Database, published by Red Hat

What it means for a small business

If your business uses Imagemagick, install the vendor's update. If you're not sure whether you use it, ask whoever manages your computers.

How likely is an attack? The Exploit Prediction Scoring System, run by FIRST (the global association of security response teams), puts the odds of this one being exploited in the next 30 days at 0.86%, higher than 58% of CVEs. That’s low, but low isn’t zero, and the odds jump the day someone publishes an exploit. Scored November 2, 2026, updated daily.

Check your own setup

Website check: reads what your site runs from the outside (WordPress version, plugins it can see, old server software) and matches it against this database.
Server check: what your web server says about itself, and whether that version has known flaws.

Sources

Part of the Huttenlocher Technologies vulnerability database, refreshed twice a day from CISA and the NVD. The title, category and plain-language guidance are ours; check the linked record before acting on a detail. This is general guidance, not a review of your systems.

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