Threats / ImageMagick / CVE-2016-3715
CVE-2016-3715
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-06-22
ImageMagick vulnerability
ImageMagick contains an improper access control vulnerability in its ephemeral pseudo protocol that allows deletion of arbitrary files.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
An attacker can exploit ImageMagick's ephemeral pseudo protocol to delete files on a system where ImageMagick processes untrusted image input, leading to data loss or denial of service.
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
1 independent public report of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.75383 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
Affected: ImageMagick, ImageMagick. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-284 Improper Access Control — weakness family: Authorization / access control.CWE assignment from the public NVD record; the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I craft a malicious image file that references the ephemeral protocol with a target file path.
Business
The organization loses critical data or experiences service disruption when ImageMagick processes the image.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I submit the image to a web service or application that automatically processes images using ImageMagick.
Business
The application's file integrity is compromised, potentially affecting backups, logs, or configuration files.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I trigger file deletion through image processing workflows without requiring direct file system access.
Business
The organization faces unplanned downtime and potential compliance violations due to unauthorized data destruction.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05