CVE-2009-3938

Exp

Buffer overflow in the ABWOutputDev::endWord function in poppler/ABWOutputDev.cc in Poppler (aka libpoppler) 0.10.6, 0.12.0, and possibly other versions, as used by the Abiword pdftoabw utility, allows user-assisted remote attackers to cause a denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted PDF file.

Published: 2009-11-13 Last update: 2026-04-23 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2009-3938 is rated High Exploit Risk (76.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 5.32%, 92th percentile). 2 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +1.87% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2009-3938

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2009-3938

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 3.45% 5.32% +1.87%
2 2025-03-30 9.13% 3.45% -5.69%
3 2025-03-29 — 9.13% —

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2009-3938

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.8 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 8.6 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2009-3938

OS Trackers for CVE-2009-3938

vendor priority summary link
debian low CVE-2009-3938 low priority: Debian including 1 source packages (poppler), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2009-3938
gentoo normal CVE-2009-3938: 1 GLSA(s) (201310-03), 1 atom(s) (app-text/poppler); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2009-3938
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2009-3938
ubuntu low CVE-2009-3938 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (poppler), 10 status rows across 10 suites (dapper, hardy, intrepid, jaunty, karmic, lucid, maverick, natty, oneiric, upstream): ignored 6, not-affected 3, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2009-3938

Vendor comments (NVD) for CVE-2009-3938

  • Red Hat (2009-11-23T00:00:00)

    Not vulnerable. This issue did not affect the versions of poppler as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2009-3938

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
poppler poppler 0.10.6 cpe:2.3:a:poppler:poppler:0.10.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
poppler poppler 0.12.0 cpe:2.3:a:poppler:poppler:0.12.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2009-3938

cvelogic Threat Intelligence