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vulnerability / NVI-00011820 / Revision 1

lopdf has a stack overflow via deeply nested PDF objects

GitHub lists this reviewed advisory for lopdf. Published version ranges and source prerequisites are shown below; this is not an inspection of a visitor’s application.

source listedactiveGHSA-6fj4-rcr3-r7rr

This report has not inspected your inventory, configuration, deployed build, reachability or evidence. A catalog listing and a severity score do not establish exposure or compromise.

01 / Meaning

Why it matters

Published affected context helps an owner decide what evidence to gather. This report has not examined your application.

CVSS

7.5 high

GitHub source severity; exploitability and local consequence require separate evidence.

As of · GitHub Advisory Database

02 / Applicability

The affected context

Affected versions, configuration prerequisites and known exclusions are public. Confirm each one against the deployed service.

lopdf

source listed
  • < 0.42.0

`lopdf::Document::load_mem` (and the other `load*` entry points) parses nested PDF arrays and dictionaries with unbounded recursion. A small crafted PDF whose Catalog contains a deeply nested array (`/X [[[ … ]]]`, on the order of 10,000 levels) exhausts the call stack and aborts the process with `SIGABRT`. Because this is a stack-overflow abort rather than a `panic!`, it cannot be caught with `catch_unwind`: any service that parses untrusted PDF input with lopdf can be crashed by a ~21 KB file, resulting in a denial of service. Confirmed on lopdf 0.41.0 and earlier; fixed in 0.42.0. Default configuration, no features changed. ## Proof of concept ```rust fn main() { let bytes = std::fs::read("poc.pdf").unwrap(); // ~10,380-deep nested array in the Catalog let _ = lopdf::Document::load_mem(&bytes); // stack overflow -> SIGABRT } ``` An equivalent PoC is a minimal PDF whose Catalog `/X` value is `"[" * 10380 + "]" * 10380`. ## Suggested fix Enforce a maximum object-nesting depth in the parser and return an `Err` instead of recursing without bound.

GitHub Advisory Database

03 / Response

What to do next

  1. investigate

    Identify the exact component and deployed version, examine the linked publisher’s conditions, and retain evidence of any mitigation.

    Confirm current vendor support, compatibility and deployment evidence. This report has not tested a fix in your system. GitHub Advisory Database

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04 / Limits

What this report cannot establish

  • Customer inventory, deployment, reachability and exploitation have not been inspected.
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05 / Provenance

Sources you can inspect

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  1. GHSA-6fj4-rcr3-r7rr ↗

    GitHub Advisory Database · vendor advisory

    Observed . GitHub Advisory Database; CC-BY-4.0. Each advisory links its original attribution. Null normalizes fields.

Public revision history

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  1. Revision 1 ·

    First indexed by Null; source disclosure date is shown separately.

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The next step is private

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