Headline

GHSA-9952-gv64-x94c: CodeIgniter4's ImageMagick Handler has Command Injection Vulnerability

This vulnerability affects applications that:

Use the ImageMagick handler for image processing (imagick as the image library)
AND either:
- Allow file uploads with user-controlled filenames and process uploaded images using the resize() method
- OR use the text() method with user-controlled text content or options

An attacker can:

Upload a file with a malicious filename containing shell metacharacters that get executed when the image is processed
OR provide malicious text content or options that get executed when adding text to images

Upgrade to v4.6.2 or later.

Switch to the GD image handler (gd, the default handler), which is not affected by either vulnerability
For file upload scenarios: Instead of using user-provided filenames, generate random names to eliminate the attack vector with getRandomName() when using the move() method, or use the store() method, which automatically generates safe filenames
For text operations: If you must use ImageMagick with user-controlled text, sanitize the input to only allow safe characters: preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9\s.,!?-]/', '', $text) and validate/restrict text options

10 hours ago

CodeIgniter4’s ImageMagick Handler has Command Injection Vulnerability

Critical severity GitHub Reviewed Published Jul 26, 2025 in codeigniter4/CodeIgniter4 • Updated Jul 28, 2025

Package

composer codeigniter4/framework (Composer)

Affected versions

< 4.6.2

Impact

This vulnerability affects applications that:

Use the ImageMagick handler for image processing (imagick as the image library)
AND either:
- Allow file uploads with user-controlled filenames and process uploaded images using the resize() method
- OR use the text() method with user-controlled text content or options

An attacker can:

Upload a file with a malicious filename containing shell metacharacters that get executed when the image is processed
OR provide malicious text content or options that get executed when adding text to images

Patches

Upgrade to v4.6.2 or later.

Workarounds

Switch to the GD image handler (gd, the default handler), which is not affected by either vulnerability
For file upload scenarios: Instead of using user-provided filenames, generate random names to eliminate the attack vector with getRandomName() when using the move() method, or use the store() method, which automatically generates safe filenames
For text operations: If you must use ImageMagick with user-controlled text, sanitize the input to only allow safe characters: preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9\s.,!?-]/’, '’, $text) and validate/restrict text options

References