CVE-2025-50420
BaseFortify
Publication date: 2025-08-04
Last updated on: 2025-10-09
Assigner: MITRE
Description
Description
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| freedesktop | poppler | to 25.07.0 (exc) |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-674 | The product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack. |
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?
This vulnerability exists in the pdfseparate utility of freedesktop Poppler versions prior to 25.07.0. It occurs when processing crafted PDF files with self-referencing or mutually referencing "/Annots" dictionaries, which causes infinite recursion in Poppler's PDFDoc class methods. The recursion leads to stack exhaustion and causes the application to hang or crash, resulting in a denial-of-service (DoS). Exploitation requires only opening or processing the malicious PDF file. [1]
How can this vulnerability impact me? :
This vulnerability can cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition by making the pdfseparate utility hang or crash when processing a maliciously crafted PDF file. This could disrupt services or workflows that rely on Poppler's pdfseparate utility to handle PDF files, potentially causing application downtime or interruption. [1]
How can this vulnerability be detected on my network or system? Can you suggest some commands?
This vulnerability can be detected by testing the pdfseparate utility with crafted PDF files that contain self-referencing or mutually referencing "/Annots" dictionaries, which trigger infinite recursion. A practical detection method is to run pdfseparate on a suspicious or crafted PDF and observe if the application hangs, crashes, or results in a segmentation fault due to stack exhaustion. For example, using a command like `pdfseparate malicious.pdf output-%d.pdf` where malicious.pdf is a crafted file designed to exploit this vulnerability can reveal the issue. Debugging tools like GDB can also be used to analyze crashes related to recursive calls in PDFDoc marking functions. [1]
What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?
To mitigate this vulnerability immediately, upgrade the Poppler package to version 25.07.0 or later, where the issue has been fixed. Avoid processing untrusted or suspicious PDF files with the pdfseparate utility until the update is applied. If upgrading is not immediately possible, consider restricting access to the pdfseparate utility or sandboxing its execution to limit potential denial-of-service impacts. [1]