Detections
Analytics

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS : libpng vulnerabilities (USN-8035-1)

high Nessus Plugin ID 298896

Synopsis

The remote Ubuntu host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The remote Ubuntu 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-8035-1 advisory.

 It was discovered that the libpng simplified API incorrectly processed palette PNG images with partial transparency and gamma correction. If a user or automated system were tricked into opening a specially crafted PNG file, an attacker could use this issue to cause libpng to crash, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2025-66293)

 Petr Simecek, Stanislav Fort and Pavel Kohout discovered that the libpng simplified API incorrectly processed interlaced 16-bit PNGs with 8-bit output format and non-minimal row strides. If a user or automated system were tricked into opening a specially crafted PNG file, an attacker could use this issue to cause libpng to crash, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2026-22695)

 Cosmin Truta discovered that the libpng simplified API incorrectly handled invalid row strides. If a user or automated system were tricked into opening a specially crafted PNG file, an attacker could use this issue to cause libpng to crash, resulting in a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. (CVE-2026-22801)

 It was discovered that the libpng simplified API incorrectly handled quantizing RGB images. If a user or automated system were tricked into opening a specially crafted PNG file, an attacker could use this issue to cause libpng to crash, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2026-25646)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected packages.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8035-1

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 298896

File Name: ubuntu_USN-8035-1.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 2/13/2026

Updated: 2/13/2026

Supported Sensors: Continuous Assessment, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.8

Temporal Score: 5.3

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-22801

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 7

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

CVSS v4

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.3

Threat Score: 7

Threat Vector: CVSS:4.0/E:P

Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-25646

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libpng16-devtools, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libpng16-16, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libpng-tools, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libpng16-dev, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libpng-dev, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libpng16-tools

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/Ubuntu, Host/Ubuntu/release, Host/Debian/dpkg-l

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 2/12/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 12/3/2025

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2025-66293, CVE-2026-22695, CVE-2026-22801, CVE-2026-25646

USN: 8035-1