GitHub Advisoryadvisory · crates.io

GHSA-6fj4-rcr3-r7rr lopdf has a stack overflow via deeply nested PDF objects

HIGH Published 2026-10-16 Modified 2026-10-16 Official page ↗
Ecosystem
crates.io
Packages
lopdf
Severity
High
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weaknesses
CWE-1124
Reviewed
2026-10-16

Affected packages

• crates.io lopdf: < 0.42.0 → fixed in 0.42.0

Description

`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.

Related

Weakness · CWE (1)

  • CWE-1124 Excessively Deep Nesting weakness

References