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Possible Infinite Loop when PdfWriter(clone_from) is used with a PDF

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Oct 29, 2023 in py-pdf/pypdf • Updated Jan 8, 2024

Package

pip pypdf (pip)

Affected versions

>= 3.7.0, < 3.17.0

Patched versions

3.17.0

Description

Impact

An attacker who uses this vulnerability can craft a PDF which leads to an infinite loop.
This infinite loop blocks the current process and can utilize a single core of the CPU by 100%. It does not affect memory usage.

That is, for example, the case when the pypdf-user manipulates an incoming malicious PDF e.g. by merging it with another PDF or by adding annotations.

Patches

The issue was fixed with #2264

Workarounds

If you cannot update your version of pypdf, you should modify pypdf/generic/_data_structures.py just like #2264 did.

References

@MartinThoma MartinThoma published to py-pdf/pypdf Oct 29, 2023
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Oct 31, 2023
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Oct 31, 2023
Reviewed Oct 31, 2023
Last updated Jan 8, 2024

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
High
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS score

0.044%
(12th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2023-46250

GHSA ID

GHSA-wjcc-cq79-p63f

Source code

Credits

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