CVE-2012-2142 [High] | Security Vulnerability in Poppler

CVE-2012-2142 is rated High Exploit Risk (78.6/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.94%). 2 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +2.54% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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—	nvd_ref	exploit_tag		Exploit-DB ↗

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#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-06-15	0.40%	2.94%	+2.54%
2	2026-04-23	1.33%	0.40%	-0.94%
3	2025-08-20	—	1.33%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-06-15

0.40%

2.94%

+2.54%

2026-04-23

1.33%

0.40%

-0.94%

2025-08-20

—

1.33%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
7.8	3.1	HIGH	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:L) They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by. Attack complexity (AC:L) Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup. Privileges required (PR:N) No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough. User interaction (UI:R) A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land. Scope (S:U) Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems. Confidentiality (C:H) Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way. Integrity (I:H) They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt. Availability (A:H) Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.	1.8	5.9	[email protected]
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]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

7.8

3.1

HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand

Attack vector (AV:L): They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L): Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N): No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R): A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U): Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H): Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H): They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H): Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

1.8

5.9

[email protected]

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]

OS Trackers for CVE-2012-2142

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	unimportant	CVE-2012-2142 unimportant priority: Debian including 2 source packages (poppler, xpdf), 10 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 10.	https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2012-2142
`gentoo`	normal	CVE-2012-2142: 1 GLSA(s) (201310-03), 1 atom(s) (app-text/poppler); latest impact normal.	https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2012-2142
`redhat`	low	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2012-2142
`ubuntu`	low	CVE-2012-2142 low priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (poppler, xpdf), 26 status rows across 13 suites (lucid, precise, quantal, raring, saucy, trusty, upstream, utopic, vivid, wily, xenial, yakkety, zesty): not-affected 19, ignored 4, DNE 2, released 1.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2012-2142

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2012-2142

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
freedesktop	poppler	< 0.21.4	cpe:2.3:a:freedesktop:poppler::::::::
xpdfreader	xpdf	3.02	cpe:2.3:a:xpdfreader:xpdf:3.02:::::::*
redhat	enterprise_linux	5.0	cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:5.0:::::::*
redhat	enterprise_linux	6.0	cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6.0:::::::*
opensuse	opensuse	12.2	cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:opensuse:12.2:::::::*

References for CVE-2012-2142

URL	Tags
http://cgit.freedesktop.org/poppler/poppler/commit/?id=71bad47ed6a36d825b0d08992c8db56845c71e40	Patch Vendor Advisory
http://cgit.freedesktop.org/poppler/poppler/commit/NEWS?id=2bc48d5369f1dbecfc4db2878f33bdeb80d8d90f	Patch Vendor Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2013-08/msg00049.html	Mailing List Patch Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2013/08/09/5	Exploit Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2013/08/09/6	Exploit Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=789936	Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory

URL

CVE-2012-2142

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2012-2142

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2012-2142

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2012-2142

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2012-2142

OS Trackers for CVE-2012-2142

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2012-2142

References for CVE-2012-2142