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

Moderate
MartinThoma published GHSA-wjcc-cq79-p63f Oct 29, 2023

Package

pip pypdf (pip)

Affected versions

>=3.7.0,<=3.16.4

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.

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

CVE ID

CVE-2023-46250

Weaknesses

No CWEs

Credits