CVE-2017-9209 [Medium] | Denial of Service in Qpdf

libqpdf.a in QPDF 6.0.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite recursion and stack consumption) via a crafted PDF document, related to QPDFObjectHandle::parseInternal, aka qpdf-infiniteloop2.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-03-27	0.23%	0.30%	+0.07%
2	2025-03-30	0.65%	0.23%	-0.42%
3	2025-03-29	—	0.65%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-03-27

0.23%

0.30%

+0.07%

2025-03-30

0.65%

0.23%

-0.42%

2025-03-29

—

0.65%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
5.5	3.0	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N` 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:N) Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged. Availability (A:N) Service keeps running; no real outage angle.	1.8	3.6	[email protected]
4.3	2.0	MEDIUM	`AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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:N) No confidentiality impact. Integrity impact (I:N) No integrity impact. Availability impact (A:P) Partial availability impact.	8.6	2.9	[email protected]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

5.5

3.0

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N 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:N): Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N): Service keeps running; no real outage angle.

1.8

3.6

[email protected]

4.3

2.0

MEDIUM

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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:N): No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N): No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P): Partial availability impact.

8.6

2.9

[email protected]

OS Trackers for CVE-2017-9209

vendor	priority	summary	link
`alpine`	—	CVE-2017-9209: 1 source package rows (qpdf); 7 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 7, open 0.	https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2017-9209
`debian`	low	CVE-2017-9209 low priority: Debian including 1 source packages (qpdf), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5.	https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-9209
`redhat`	low	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-9209
`suse`	medium	CVE-2017-9209 severity moderate: SUSE including 34 source package names (cups-filters-1.0.58-15.2.1, cups-filters-1.0.58-19.2.3, …), 166 product×package rows across 50 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, SUSE Enterprise Storage 4, … (50 product lines)): Fixed 139, Known Not Affected 27.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-9209/
`ubuntu`	negligible	CVE-2017-9209 negligible priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (qpdf), 6 status rows across 6 suites (artful, bionic, trusty, upstream, xenial, zesty): released 3, not-affected 2, ignored 1.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-9209

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-9209

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
qpdf_project	qpdf	6.0.0	cpe:2.3:a:qpdf_project:qpdf:6.0.0:::::::*
canonical	ubuntu_linux	14.04	cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04::::lts:::
canonical	ubuntu_linux	16.04	cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04::::lts:::
canonical	ubuntu_linux	17.10	cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:17.10:::::::*

References for CVE-2017-9209

URL	Tags
https://blogs.gentoo.org/ago/2017/05/21/qpdf-three-infinite-loop-in-libqpdf/	Patch Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3638-1/	Third Party Advisory

URL

CVE-2017-9209

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2017-9209

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2017-9209

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2017-9209

OS Trackers for CVE-2017-9209

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-9209

References for CVE-2017-9209