What is CVE-2015-8472?

CVE-2015-8472 is a high-severity vulnerability in Apple Mac OS X, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. CVSS score: 7.3/10. Published 2016-01-21.

How severe is CVE-2015-8472?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.3 out of 10.

Is CVE-2015-8472 known to be exploited?

2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Buffer overflow in Apple Mac OS X

CVE-2015-8472

Buffer overflow in the png_set_PLTE function in libpng before 1.0.65, 1.1.x and 1.2.x before 1.2.55, 1.3.x, 1.4.x before 1.4.18, 1.5.x before 1.5.25, and 1.6.x before 1.6.20 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a small bit-depth value in an IHDR (aka image header) chunk in a PNG image. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2015-8126.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2016-01-21 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.3 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.061 (93.1th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 93rd percentile — 93.1% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.061 · newest: 0.061 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Apple Mac OS X
Libpng — versions 1.0.64, 1.2.0, 1.2.1

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-119 — Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2016/Mar/msg00004.html (vendor-advisory)
support.apple.com/HT206167 (Vendor Advisory)
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2016-01/msg00047.html (vendor-advisory)
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2016-01/msg00048.html (vendor-advisory)
sourceforge.net/projects/libpng/files/libpng10/1.0.65/
sourceforge.net/projects/libpng/files/libpng16/1.6.20/
www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/cpujan2016-2367955.html (Vendor Advisory)
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016:1430 (vendor-advisory)
sourceforge.net/projects/libpng/files/libpng15/1.5.25/
rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-2595.html (vendor-advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2015-8472?: CVE-2015-8472 is a high-severity vulnerability in Apple Mac OS X, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. CVSS score: 7.3/10. Published 2016-01-21.
How severe is CVE-2015-8472?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.3 out of 10.
Is CVE-2015-8472 known to be exploited?: 2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.