LibTIFF is a

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

for reading and writing

Tagged Image File Format Tag Image File Format, abbreviated TIFF or TIF, is an image file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers. TIFF is widely supported by scanning, faxing, word processing ...

(abbreviated TIFF) files. The set also contains

command line A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

tools for processing TIFFs. It is distributed in

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comment (computer programming), comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a Computer program, p ...

and can be found as binary builds for all kinds of platforms. The LibTIFF software was originally written by

Sam Leffler Samuel J Leffler is a computer scientist, known for his extensive work on BSD, from the 1980s to FreeBSD in the present day. Among other projects, he created FlexFAX, LibTIFF, and the FreeBSD Wireless Device Drivers. The ''Design and Implem ...

while working for

Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...

Features

Support for BigTIFF, files larger than 4 GiB, was included for LibTIFF 4.0.

Exploits

TIFF Tag Image File Format, abbreviated TIFF or TIF, is an image file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers. TIFF is widely supported by scanning, faxing, word processin ...

file is composed of small descriptor blocks containing offsets into the file which point to a variety of data types. Incorrect offset values can cause programs to attempt to read erroneous portions of the file or attempt to read past the physical

end of file In computing, end-of-file (EOF) is a condition in a computer operating system where no more data can be read from a data source. The data source is usually called a file or stream. Details In the C standard library, the character reading funct ...

. Improperly encoded packet or line lengths within the file can cause rendering programs which lack appropriate boundary checks to overflow their internal buffers. Multiple

buffer overflow In information security and programming, a buffer overflow, or buffer overrun, is an anomaly whereby a program, while writing data to a buffer, overruns the buffer's boundary and overwrites adjacent memory locations. Buffers are areas of memor ...

s have been found in LibTIFF. Some of these have also been used to execute

unsigned code Code signing is the process of digitally signing executables and scripts to confirm the software author and guarantee that the code has not been altered or corrupted since it was signed. The process employs the use of a cryptographic hash to val ...

on the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 200 ...

, as well as run third-party applications on the iPhone and

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a music pl ...

firmware.

Website hijacking

Around January 2004, the original LibTIFF website had been hijacked, after it had disappeared in September 2003 due to ISP problems. The libtiff dot org site contains a very outdated mirror of the real site, and much of the information contained therein is incorrect, including the current version number, authors, mailing list address, and the

CVS CVS may refer to: Organizations * CVS Health, a US pharmacy chain ** CVS Pharmacy ** CVS Caremark, a prescription benefit management subsidiary * Council for Voluntary Service, England * Cable Video Store, former US pay-per-view service * CVS F ...

information. In September 2016, the LibTIFF maintainers lost control of remotesensing.org/libtiff/, which had been the main site since 2003.

References

External links

*{{Official website
LibTIFF Mailing list ArchiveLibTiff.NET - .NET version of LibTIFF
Graphics libraries Software using the BSD license