GitHub Advisoryadvisory · crates.io
GHSA-6fj4-rcr3-r7rr lopdf has a stack overflow via deeply nested PDF objects
HIGH
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