CVE-2023-24808

Denial Of Service when opening a corrupt PDF file in pdfio

MEDIUM
6.5
CVSS Score
Published: February 7, 2023 at 12:02 AM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 05:39 AM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsPdfioPdfio

Using pdfio by michaelrsweet?

Get instant alerts when new vulnerabilities affect pdfio - before attackers find them.

Real-time alertsTrack your software stackFree plan available
Severity
MEDIUM6.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.7%
SSVC
PoC

Description

PDFio is a C library for reading and writing PDF files. In versions prior to 1.1.0 a denial of service (DOS) vulnerability exists in the pdfio parser. Crafted pdf files can cause the program to run at 100% utilization and never terminate. The pdf which causes this crash found in testing is about 28kb in size and was discovered via fuzzing. Anyone who uses this library either as a standalone binary or as a library can be DOSed when attempting to parse this type of file. Web servers or other automated processes which rely on this code to turn pdf submissions into plaintext can be DOSed when an attacker uploads the pdf. Please see the linked GHSA for an example pdf. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 1.1.0
Affected range stops below 1.1.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 1.1.0
Affected range stops below 1.1.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCPoCAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-835

Get alerted

Stop reading CVE feeds looking for your own stack

Track the products you run and VulnTracker tells you when a new CVE affects them — with what is known about fixing it, and nothing about the rest.

Free plan, no card