CVE-2018-11797

In Apache PDFBox 1.8.0 to 1.8.15 and 2.0.0RC1 to 2.0.11, a carefully crafted PDF file can trigger an extremely long running computation when parsing the page tree.

Published: 2018-10-05 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-11797 is rated Moderate Risk (55.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 4.02%). EPSS rose +2.40% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-11797

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 1.62% 4.02% +2.40%
2 2026-03-04 0.51% 1.62% +1.11%
3 2026-03-01 — 0.51% —

Full EPSS history (34 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-11797

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 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]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-11797

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2018-11797

GHSA-gx96-vgf7-hwfg · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: maven — In Apache PDFBox a carefully crafted PDF file can trigger an extremely long running computation

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-11797

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-11797 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (libpdfbox-java, libpdfbox2-java), 10 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 10. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-11797
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-11797
suse high CVE-2018-11797 severity important: SUSE including 12 source package names (apache-pdfbox, apache-pdfbox-1.8.12-3.5.4, …), 19 product×package rows across 15 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15, SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP1, … (15 product lines)): Fixed 18, Known Not Affected 1. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-11797/
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-11797 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (libpdfbox-java, libpdfbox2-java), 38 status rows across 19 suites (bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 28, released 6, DNE 3, needed 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-11797

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-11797

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
apache pdfbox >= 1.8.0, <= 1.8.15 cpe:2.3:a:apache:pdfbox:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache pdfbox >= 2.0.1, <= 2.0.11 cpe:2.3:a:apache:pdfbox:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache pdfbox 2.0 cpe:2.3:a:apache:pdfbox:2.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache pdfbox 2.0 cpe:2.3:a:apache:pdfbox:2.0:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache pdfbox 2.0 cpe:2.3:a:apache:pdfbox:2.0:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache pdfbox 2.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:apache:pdfbox:2.0.0:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 29 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:29:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 30 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:30:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle retail_xstore_point_of_service 17.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:retail_xstore_point_of_service:17.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-11797

URL Tags
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/645574bc50b886d39c20b4065d51ccb1cd5d3a6b4750a22edbb565eb%40%3Cannounce.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/a9760973a873522f4d4c0a99916ceb74f361d91006b663a0a418d34a%40%3Cannounce.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r54594251369e14c185da9662a5340a52afbbdf75d61c9c3a69c8f2e8%40%3Cdev.pdfbox.apache.org%3E
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/10/msg00008.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/6HKVPTJWZGUB4MH4AAOWMRJHRDBYFHGJ/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/POPOGHJ5CVMUVCRQU7APBAN5IVZGZFDX/
https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2020.html Patch Third Party Advisory
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