CVE-2025-52885

GHSL-2025-042: Poppler has Use-After-Free

MEDIUM
6.1
CVSS Score
Published: October 10, 2025 at 10:11 PM UTC
Updated: October 19, 2026 at 04:10 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorPoppler

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Severity
MEDIUM6.1
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

Poppler ia a library for rendering PDF files, and examining or modifying their structure. A use-after-free (write) vulnerability has been detected in versions Poppler prior to 25.10.0 within the StructTreeRoot class. The issue arises from the use of raw pointers to elements of a `std::vector`, which can lead to dangling pointers when the vector is resized. The vulnerability stems from the way that refToParentMap stores references to `std::vector` elements using raw pointers. These pointers may become invalid when the vector is resized. This vulnerability is a common security problem involving the use of raw pointers to `std::vectors`. Internally, `std::vector `stores its elements in a dynamically allocated array. When the array reaches its capacity and a new element is added, the vector reallocates a larger block of memory and moves all the existing elements to the new location. At this point if any pointers to elements are stored before a resize occurs, they become dangling pointers once the reallocation happens. Version 25.10.0 contains a patch for the issue.

Affected

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

v < 25.10.0
Affected range stops below 25.10.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

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

CVSS

6.1MEDIUMGitHub_M
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusDEFERRED
CWE
CWE-416

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