CVE-2017-12595 : What You Need to Know

QPDF versions 6.0.0 and 7.0.b1 have a vulnerability that allows remote attackers to disrupt services or potentially achieve other impacts by exploiting a recursive tokenizer for arrays and dictionaries.

Understanding CVE-2017-12595

QPDF 6.0.0 and 7.0.b1 are affected by a vulnerability that can be exploited by malicious actors to cause denial of service or other impacts.

What is CVE-2017-12595?

The vulnerability in QPDF versions 6.0.0 and 7.0.b1 stems from a recursive tokenizer for arrays and dictionaries, enabling attackers to disrupt services or potentially cause other impacts by utilizing a PDF document with a complex data structure.

The Impact of CVE-2017-12595

Attackers can consume the stack and cause a segmentation fault, leading to service disruption.
The exploit could result in unspecified impacts beyond denial of service.

Technical Details of CVE-2017-12595

QPDF 6.0.0 and 7.0.b1 vulnerability details.

Vulnerability Description

The vulnerability allows remote attackers to disrupt services or achieve other impacts by exploiting a recursive tokenizer for arrays and dictionaries in QPDF versions 6.0.0 and 7.0.b1.

Affected Systems and Versions

Product: N/A
Vendor: N/A
Versions: 6.0.0 and 7.0.b1

Exploitation Mechanism

Attackers can exploit the vulnerability by using a PDF document with a deep data structure, causing a crash in QPDFObjectHandle::parseInternal in libqpdf/QPDFObjectHandle.cc.

Mitigation and Prevention

Steps to mitigate and prevent CVE-2017-12595.

Immediate Steps to Take

Update QPDF to a patched version if available.
Avoid opening PDFs from untrusted sources.
Monitor vendor advisories for patches.

Long-Term Security Practices

Regularly update software to the latest versions.
Implement network security measures to detect and block malicious PDFs.

Patching and Updates

Apply patches provided by QPDF promptly.