A buffer overflow in OpenJPEG 2.1.1 causes arbitrary code execution when parsing a crafted image. An exploitable code execution vulnerability exists in the jpeg2000 image file format parser as implemented in the OpenJpeg library. A specially crafted jpeg2000 file can cause an out of bound heap write resulting in heap corruption leading to arbitrary code execution.

For a successful attack, the target user needs to open a malicious jpeg2000 file. The jpeg2000 image file format is mostly used for embedding images inside PDF documents and the OpenJpeg library is used by a number of popular PDF renderers making PDF documents a likely attack vector.