libsixel: Use-After-Free in load_gif()
libsixel is a SIXEL encoder/decoder implementation derived from kmiya's sixel. Versions 1.8.7 and prior contain a Use-After-Free vulnerability via the load_gif() function in fromgif.c, where a single sixel_frame_t object is reused across all frames of an animated GIF and gif_init_frame() unconditionally frees and reallocates frame->pixels between frames without consulting the object's reference count. Because the public API explicitly provides sixel_frame_ref() to retain a frame and sixel_frame_get_pixels() to access the raw pixel buffer, a callback following this documented usage pattern will hold a dangling pointer after the second frame is decoded, resulting in a heap use-after-free confirmed by ASAN. Any application using sixel_helper_load_image_file() with a multi-frame callback to process user-supplied animated GIFs is affected, with a reliable crash as the minimum impact and potential for code execution. This issue has been fixed in version 1.8.7-r1.
- Products
- Not specified
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- Not specified
- CVEs
- CVE-2026-33018
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 6 Nov 2026, 02:16 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
libsixel is a SIXEL encoder/decoder implementation derived from kmiya's sixel. Versions 1.8.7 and prior contain a Use-After-Free vulnerability via the load_gif() function in fromgif.c, where a single sixel_frame_t object is reused across all frames of an animated GIF and gif_init_frame() unconditionally frees and reallocates frame->pixels between frames without consulting the object's reference count. Because the public API explicitly provides sixel_frame_ref() to retain a frame and sixel_frame_get_pixels() to access the raw pixel buffer, a callback following this documented usage pattern will hold a dangling pointer after the second frame is decoded, resulting in a heap use-after-free confirmed by ASAN. Any application using sixel_helper_load_image_file() with a multi-frame callback to process user-supplied animated GIFs is affected, with a reliable crash as the minimum impact and potential for code execution. This issue has been fixed in version 1.8.7-r1.
osv:CVE-2026-33018
Complete source record
{
"id": "41956fdf19cc457561606205d4593a1d4bd2ad050e0ca53e3426fd749d42a430",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-33018",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "libsixel: Use-After-Free in load_gif()",
"summary": "libsixel is a SIXEL encoder/decoder implementation derived from kmiya's sixel. Versions 1.8.7 and prior contain a Use-After-Free vulnerability via the load_gif() function in fromgif.c, where a single sixel_frame_t object is reused across all frames of an animated GIF and gif_init_frame() unconditionally frees and reallocates frame->pixels between frames without consulting the object's reference count. Because the public API explicitly provides sixel_frame_ref() to retain a frame and sixel_frame_get_pixels() to access the raw pixel buffer, a callback following this documented usage pattern will hold a dangling pointer after the second frame is decoded, resulting in a heap use-after-free confirmed by ASAN. Any application using sixel_helper_load_image_file() with a multi-frame callback to process user-supplied animated GIFs is affected, with a reliable crash as the minimum impact and potential for code execution. This issue has been fixed in version 1.8.7-r1.",
"evidence": "osv:CVE-2026-33018",
"products": [],
"severity": "high",
"structured": {
"id": "CVE-2026-33018",
"aliases": [
"CVE-2026-33018",
"GHSA-w46f-jr9f-rgvp"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"repo": "https://github.com/saitoha/libsixel",
"type": "GIT",
"events": [
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{
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{
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"source": "CPE_RANGE"
},
{
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"source": "REFERENCES_TAG",
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],
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2026-33018.json"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:46.235688821Z",
"provider": "osv",
"references": [
"https://github.com/saitoha/libsixel/releases/tag/v1.8.7-r1",
"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/33xxx/CVE-2026-33018.json",
"https://github.com/saitoha/libsixel/security/advisories/GHSA-w46f-jr9f-rgvp",
"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-33018"
],
"provider_metadata": {
"cwe_ids": [
"CWE-416"
],
"cna_assigner": "GitHub_M",
"unresolved_ranges": [
{
"extracted_events": [
{
"range": [
{
"fixed": "1.8.7-rc1"
}
],
"source": "AFFECTED_FIELD",
"strategy": "StringRangeExpression"
}
]
}
],
"osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/33xxx/CVE-2026-33018.json"
}
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2026-33018",
"evidence": "/id"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 514200,
"published_at": "2026-04-14T21:45:42.261+00:00"
}