published October 22, 2026
Pillow is a Python imaging library. From 11.0.0 until 13.0.0, Exif.load() in src/PIL/Image.py repeatedly slices the remaining EXIF data while it begins with the six-byte Exif header. src/PIL/PngImagePlugin.py accepts an uncapped PNG eXIf chunk, so a file filled with repeated headers causes a new shrinking copy on every iteration and quadratic CPU work. The condition is reachable through Image.getexif(), Image._getexif(), and ImageOps.exif_transpose(), including common photo-upload rotation workflows. This issue is fixed in version 13.0.0.