From a78bff6e6278543173b75eeff5dde70ab1e09a94 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Andrew Murray <radarhere@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2026 10:26:48 +1000
Subject: [PATCH] Do not DECREF tuple until tuple items are no longer used

---
 src/encode.c | 6 +++++-
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/src/encode.c b/src/encode.c
index 476e5ea420d..c0c956046a9 100644
--- a/src/encode.c
+++ b/src/encode.c
@@ -774,7 +774,6 @@ PyImaging_LibTiffEncoderNew(PyObject *self, PyObject *args) {
         key = PyTuple_GET_ITEM(item, 0);
         key_int = (int)PyLong_AsLong(key);
         value = PyTuple_GET_ITEM(item, 1);
-        Py_DECREF(item);
 
         status = 0;
         is_core_tag = 0;
@@ -792,6 +791,7 @@ PyImaging_LibTiffEncoderNew(PyObject *self, PyObject *args) {
             PyObject *tag_type;
             if (PyDict_GetItemRef(types, key, &tag_type) < 0) {
                 Py_DECREF(encoder);
+                Py_DECREF(item);
                 return NULL;  // Exception has been already set
             }
             if (tag_type) {
@@ -852,6 +852,7 @@ PyImaging_LibTiffEncoderNew(PyObject *self, PyObject *args) {
             key_int == TIFFTAG_INKNAMES) {
             if (!PyBytes_Check(value)) {
                 Py_DECREF(encoder);
+                Py_DECREF(item);
                 PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "Incorrect tag value type");
                 return NULL;
             }
@@ -870,6 +871,7 @@ PyImaging_LibTiffEncoderNew(PyObject *self, PyObject *args) {
                 int stride = 256;
                 if (len != 768) {
                     Py_DECREF(encoder);
+                    Py_DECREF(item);
                     PyErr_SetString(
                         PyExc_ValueError, "Requiring 768 items for Colormap"
                     );
@@ -1030,6 +1032,7 @@ PyImaging_LibTiffEncoderNew(PyObject *self, PyObject *args) {
             } else if (type == TIFF_ASCII) {
                 if (!PyBytes_Check(value)) {
                     Py_DECREF(encoder);
+                    Py_DECREF(item);
                     PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "Incorrect tag value type");
                     return NULL;
                 }
@@ -1054,6 +1057,7 @@ PyImaging_LibTiffEncoderNew(PyObject *self, PyObject *args) {
                 );
             }
         }
+        Py_DECREF(item);
         if (!status) {
             TRACE(("Error setting Field\n"));
             Py_DECREF(encoder);