Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-96640

high Nessus Plugin ID 370284

Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- Pillow is a Python imaging library. From 5.1.0 until 13.0.0, PdfParser.linearize_page_tree() in src/PIL/PdfParser.py treats a PDF /Pages graph as a tree without tracking duplicate indirect references.
When Image.save(..., format=PDF, append=True) processes an attacker-controlled existing PDF whose /Kids arrays repeatedly reference the same child /Pages node, Pillow expands the shared subtree as distinct pages. A compact malformed PDF can therefore create exponentially many page references and consume disproportionate CPU before the append completes. This issue is fixed in version 13.0.0. (CVE-2026-96640)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2026-96640

https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-96640

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 370284

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2026_96640.nasl

Version: 1.2

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 10/22/2026

Updated: 10/22/2026

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 3

Percentile: 23.72

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 4.3

Temporal Score: 3.7

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-96640

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.5

Temporal Score: 5.1

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

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:U/RC:C

CVSS v4

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.2

Threat Score: 4.6

Threat Vector: CVSS:4.0/E:U

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:centos:centos:8, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:13.0, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:14.0, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:python-pillow, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:python3-pillow-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:python3-pillow-doc, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:python3-pillow-tk, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:python3-pillow, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:pillow, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:python-pillow, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:python3-pillow-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:python3-pillow-doc, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:python3-pillow-tk, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:python3-pillow

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 10/21/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-96640