GHSA-6fj4-rcr3-r7rr
`lopdf::Document::load_mem` (and the other `load*` entry points) parses nested PDF arrays and dictionaries with unbounded recursion. A small crafted PDF whose Catalog contains a deeply nested array (`/X [[[ … ]]]`, on the order of 10,000 levels) exhausts the call stack and aborts the process with `SIGABRT`. Because this is a stack-overflow abort rather than a `panic!`, it cannot be caught with `catch_unwind`: any service that parses untrusted PDF input with lopdf can be crashed by a ~21 KB file, resulting in a denial of service. Confirmed on lopdf 0.41.0 and earlier; fixed in 0.42.0. Default configuration, no features changed. ## Proof of concept ```rust fn main() { let bytes = std::fs::read("poc.pdf").unwrap(); // ~10,380-deep nested array in the Catalog let _ = lopdf::Document::load_mem(&bytes); // stack overflow -> SIGABRT } ``` An equivalent PoC is a minimal PDF whose Catalog `/X` value is `"[" * 10380 + "]" * 10380`. ## Suggested fix Enforce a maximum object-nesting depth in the parser and return an `Err` instead of recursing without bound.
Properties
- severity
- high
- summary
- lopdf has a stack overflow via deeply nested PDF objects
- cvss_score
- 7.5
- retrieved_at
- 2026-10-16T22:34:19+00:00
- ghsa_published
- 2026-10-16T19:55:39Z
- source_url
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-6fj4-rcr3-r7rr
- ghsa_updated
- 2026-10-16T19:55:40Z
- ghsa_id
- GHSA-6fj4-rcr3-r7rr
- last_source
- GitHub Advisory Database
- cve_id
- GHSA-6fj4-rcr3-r7rr
- cvss_vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- signal_observed_at
- 2026-10-16T22:27:05+00:00
- is_ghsa_only
- true
Related Entities (4)
VULNERABLE_TO (1)
AFFECTS (1)
HAS_WEAKNESS (1)
REPORTED_BY (1)
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