OpenEXR Makes Use of Uninitialized Memory

Overview

Summary

While fuzzing openexr_exrcheck_fuzzer, Valgrind reports a conditional branch depending on uninitialized data inside generic_unpack. This indicates a use of uninitialized memory (CWE-457). The issue is reproducible with the current OSS-Fuzz harness and a single-file PoC.

Details

Environment:

• Tooling: valgrind --tool=memcheck --track-origins=yes
• Target: openexr_exrcheck_fuzzer
• OS: Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS focal x86_64
• openexr version and Git-commit hash: openexr 3.4.2 | commit fd657e8a41e157e5841c7cc2e2a5efe094b069a1 (grafted, HEAD -> main, origin/main, origin/HEAD)

Function: generic_unpack

Possible root cause (based on observed symptoms): The unpacker is branching on bytes in a scratch buffer that were never written because the decode step didn’t fully populate it.

• The first use flagged is in generic_unpack(). That function reads from the decompressed/expanded pixel buffer to scatter data into the framebuffer. A “conditional jump depends on uninitialised value(s)” means it’s consulting bytes in that buffer before they were written.
• Valgrind says the uninitialised value “was created by a heap allocation (malloc)”, not the stack: this matches a per-tile/per-scanline decode scratch buffer allocated in exr_decoding_run().

Valgrind Trace (top frames):

==454== Conditional jump or move depends on uninitialised value(s)
==454==    at 0x4539BE: generic_unpack (in /out/openexr_exrcheck_fuzzer)
==454==    by 0x44B85F: exr_decoding_run (in /out/openexr_exrcheck_fuzzer)
==454==    by 0x38BC5F: Imf_4_0::(anonymous namespace)::TileProcess::run_decode(_priv_exr_context_t const*, int, Imf_4_0::FrameBuffer const*, std::__1::vector<Imf_4_0::Slice, std::__1::allocator<Imf_4_0::Slice> > const&) (in /out/openexr_exrcheck_fuzzer)
==454==    by 0x388BE1: Imf_4_0::TiledInputFile::Data::readTiles(int, int, int, int, int, int) (in /out/openexr_exrcheck_fuzzer)
==454==    by 0x388619: Imf_4_0::TiledInputFile::readTiles(int, int, int, int, int, int) (in /out/openexr_exrcheck_fuzzer)
==454==    by 0x353755: Imf_4_0::InputFile::Data::bufferedReadPixels(int, int) (in /out/openexr_exrcheck_fuzzer)
==454==    by 0x352286: Imf_4_0::InputFile::readPixels(int) (in /out/openexr_exrcheck_fuzzer)
==454==    by 0x3190FA: Imf_4_0::(anonymous namespace)::readMultiPart(Imf_4_0::MultiPartInputFile&, bool, bool) (in /out/openexr_exrcheck_fuzzer)
==454==    by 0x314C4D: Imf_4_0::checkOpenEXRFile(char const*, unsigned long, bool, bool, bool) (in /out/openexr_exrcheck_fuzzer)
==454==  Uninitialised value was created by a heap allocation at 0x483B7F3: malloc (in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/valgrind/vgpreload_memcheck-amd64-linux.so)

PoC

In the attached archive, you will find:

• The executable used for our tests.
• The testcase used to trigger the bug.

To observe the bug, simply run the OSS-Fuzz helper script:

git clone https://github.com/google/oss-fuzz.git
cd oss-fuzz

python3 infra/helper.py build_image openexr
python3 infra/helper.py build_fuzzers --sanitizer=none openexr
python3 infra/helper.py shell openexr

apt update && apt install -y valgrind
ulimit -n 65535
valgrind --tool=memcheck --track-origins=yes /out/openexr_exrcheck_fuzzer /path/to/poc

Impact

• Undefined Behavior
• Potential crash
• Denial of Service

Credit: Aldo Ristori archive0.zip

Update Note:

Other saved testcases from the fuzzing campaign trigger the same underlying bug, but with a different manifestation. So there is one root cause (missing post-decode validation / zero-init before any unpack), with different call-sites. Below there are several archives, formatted like the previous one, that reproduce the other test cases.

Other observed sinks (distinct manifestations of the same bug):

Deep pointers path: generic_unpack_deep_pointers (deep scanline/tiled) archive1.zip

Deep sample table path: unpack_sample_table (deep scanline) archive2.zip

Half conversion path: half_to_float_buffer_f16c via unpack_half_to_float_3chan_planar archive3.zip

Deep compositing: CompositeDeepScanLine::readPixels → ThreadPool::addTask → LineCompositeTask::execute archive4.zip

Affected packages

• openexr >= 3.3.0, < 3.3.6
• openexr >= 3.4.0, < 3.4.3

Remediation

Upgrade to a patched release:

• openexr 3.3.6
• openexr 3.4.3