📄 Description (English)
ImageMagick Arbitrary File Deletion Vulnerability — ImageMagick contains an unspecified vulnerability that could allow users to delete files by using ImageMagick's 'ephemeral' pseudo protocol, which deletes files after reading.
🤖 AI Executive Summary
CVE-2016-3715 is a critical vulnerability in ImageMagick that allows attackers to delete arbitrary files on the server by exploiting the 'ephemeral' pseudo protocol. This vulnerability is part of the infamous 'ImageTragick' series of flaws that were widely exploited in the wild in 2016. With a CVSS score of 9.0 and active exploits available, any system processing user-uploaded images through ImageMagick is at severe risk. Organizations must patch immediately or implement compensating controls to prevent exploitation.
📄 Description (Arabic)
🤖 AI Intelligence Analysis Analyzed: Apr 5, 2026 17:04
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia Impact Assessment
This vulnerability poses significant risk to Saudi organizations running web applications that process user-uploaded images using ImageMagick. Government portals (NCA-regulated), banking platforms (SAMA-regulated), e-commerce sites, and content management systems are particularly vulnerable. Saudi telecom operators (STC, Mobily, Zain) running image processing services, healthcare portals handling medical imaging uploads, and energy sector web applications (ARAMCO, SABIC) with document/image upload functionality are all at risk. The ability to delete arbitrary files could lead to denial of service, data destruction, and potential escalation to full system compromise.
🏢 Affected Saudi Sectors
Government
Banking
Telecom
Healthcare
Energy
E-commerce
Education
Media
⚖️ Saudi Risk Score (AI)
8.5
/ 10.0
🔧 Remediation Steps (English)
Immediate Actions:
1. Update ImageMagick to the latest patched version (6.9.3-10 or later, 7.0.1-1 or later)
2. Implement a policy.xml file to disable vulnerable coders and pseudo protocols:
- Add: <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="EPHEMERAL" />
- Add: <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="URL" />
- Add: <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="MVG" />
- Add: <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="MSL" />
- Add: <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="HTTPS" />
- Add: <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="HTTP" />
3. Validate all uploaded image files using magic bytes verification before passing to ImageMagick
4. Run ImageMagick in a sandboxed environment with minimal file system permissions
5. Consider switching to alternative image processing libraries (e.g., libvips, Pillow) where possible
Detection Rules:
- Monitor for 'ephemeral:' strings in uploaded files and image processing logs
- Alert on unexpected file deletions in web application directories
- Implement WAF rules to block requests containing ImageMagick pseudo protocol references
🔧 خطوات المعالجة (العربية)
الإجراءات الفورية:
1. تحديث ImageMagick إلى أحدث إصدار مصحح (6.9.3-10 أو أحدث، 7.0.1-1 أو أحدث)
2. تطبيق ملف policy.xml لتعطيل البروتوكولات الزائفة الضعيفة:
- إضافة: <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="EPHEMERAL" />
- إضافة: <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="URL" />
- إضافة: <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="MVG" />
- إضافة: <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="MSL" />
- إضافة: <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="HTTPS" />
- إضافة: <policy domain="coder" rights="none" pattern="HTTP" />
3. التحقق من جميع ملفات الصور المرفوعة باستخدام فحص البايتات السحرية قبل تمريرها إلى ImageMagick
4. تشغيل ImageMagick في بيئة معزولة مع أقل صلاحيات ممكنة لنظام الملفات
5. النظر في التحول إلى مكتبات بديلة لمعالجة الصور (مثل libvips أو Pillow) حيثما أمكن
قواعد الكشف:
- مراقبة سلاسل 'ephemeral:' في الملفات المرفوعة وسجلات معالجة الصور
- التنبيه عند حذف ملفات غير متوقعة في مجلدات تطبيقات الويب
- تطبيق قواعد جدار حماية تطبيقات الويب لحظر الطلبات المحتوية على مراجع بروتوكولات ImageMagick الزائفة
📋 Regulatory Compliance Mapping
🟢 NCA ECC 2024
ECC-2:3-1 (Vulnerability Management)
ECC-2:3-3 (Patch Management)
ECC-2:5-1 (Application Security)
ECC-2:2-4 (Security Configuration Management)
🔵 SAMA CSF
3.3.3 (Patch Management)
3.3.4 (Vulnerability Management)
3.4.1 (Application Security)
3.3.7 (Security Configuration)
🟡 ISO 27001:2022
A.8.8 (Management of technical vulnerabilities)
A.8.9 (Configuration management)
A.8.25 (Secure development lifecycle)
A.8.28 (Secure coding)
🟣 PCI DSS v4.0
6.3.3 (Identify and manage security vulnerabilities)
6.2.4 (Software engineering techniques to prevent attacks)
11.3.1 (Internal vulnerability scans)
🔗 References & Sources 0
No references.
📦 Affected Products / CPE 1 entries
ImageMagick:ImageMagick