Creating a thumbnail from UIImage using CGImageSourceCreateThumbnailAtIndex

Swift 4 code

let imageData = UIImagePNGRepresentation(image)!
let options = [
    kCGImageSourceCreateThumbnailWithTransform: true,
    kCGImageSourceCreateThumbnailFromImageAlways: true,
    kCGImageSourceThumbnailMaxPixelSize: 300] as CFDictionary
let source = CGImageSourceCreateWithData(imageData, nil)!
let imageReference = CGImageSourceCreateThumbnailAtIndex(source, 0, options)!
let thumbnail = UIImage(cgImage: imageReference)

Have you try using CGImageSourceCreateWithData and passing image data as CFDataRef like this.

NSData *imageData = UIImagePNGRepresentation(image);
CGImageSourceRef src = CGImageSourceCreateWithData((__bridge CFDataRef)imageData, NULL);
CFDictionaryRef options = (__bridge CFDictionaryRef) @{
                                                     (id) kCGImageSourceCreateThumbnailWithTransform : @YES,
                                                     (id) kCGImageSourceCreateThumbnailFromImageAlways : @YES,
                                                     (id) kCGImageSourceThumbnailMaxPixelSize : @(width)
                                                     };

CGImageRef scaledImageRef = CGImageSourceCreateThumbnailAtIndex(src, 0, options);
UIImage *scaled = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:scaledImageRef];
CGImageRelease(scaledImageRef);
return scaled;

Note: If you have URL of image then you can create CGImageSourceRef using CGImageSourceCreateWithURL.

CGImageSourceRef src = CGImageSourceCreateWithURL((__bridge CFURLRef)(imageFileURL), NULL);

Swift 5.1 extension

based on Ivan's answer

extension UIImage {

  func getThumbnail() -> UIImage? {

    guard let imageData = self.pngData() else { return nil }

    let options = [
        kCGImageSourceCreateThumbnailWithTransform: true,
        kCGImageSourceCreateThumbnailFromImageAlways: true,
        kCGImageSourceThumbnailMaxPixelSize: 300] as CFDictionary

    guard let source = CGImageSourceCreateWithData(imageData as CFData, nil) else { return nil }
    guard let imageReference = CGImageSourceCreateThumbnailAtIndex(source, 0, options) else { return nil }

    return UIImage(cgImage: imageReference)

  }
}