CVE-2026-14454
Malformed EXIF in Imager (<1.033) enables remote denial-of-service via crafted image
Is CVE-2026-14454 being exploited?
Not confirmed. CVE-2026-14454 does not appear in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which records only exploitation that has been observed and reported publicly. That is evidence of absence of a report, not evidence the flaw is unattacked. EPSS currently estimates a 0.66% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How severe is CVE-2026-14454?
CVE-2026-14454 is rated Critical with a CVSS score of 9.8. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.
Is there a patch for CVE-2026-14454?
Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2026-14454. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.
What does CVE-2026-14454 affect?
CVE-2026-14454 affects Perl Imager < 1.033, Perl applications using Imager for image parsing, Web services processing untrusted image uploads. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
What should I do about CVE-2026-14454?
Upgrade Imager to >=1.033; validate and sandbox image processing.
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
Remote denial-of-service: crafted image with large/negative EXIF IFD count triggers huge allocation attempt and kills worker process.
Patch when possible
- affected< 1.033
As published in the CVE Program record. A version outside these ranges is not a statement that it is unaffected — vendors sometimes understate a range, and distribution-backported builds carry upstream numbers that do not reflect what was patched into them.