CVE-2021-31812 | A carefully crafted PDF file can trigger an infinite loop while loading the file

In Apache PDFBox, a carefully crafted PDF file can trigger an infinite loop while loading the file. This issue affects Apache PDFBox version 2.0.23 and prior 2.0.x versions.

Published: 2021-06-12 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-31812 is rated Low Risk (38.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.23%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2021-31812

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 2026-01-19 0.04% 0.23% +0.19%
2 2025-12-11 0.05% 0.04% -0.01%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.05% —

Full EPSS history (15 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-31812

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-2021-31812

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2021-31812

GHSA-7grw-6pjh-jpc9 · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: maven — Infinite Loop in Apache PDFBox

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-31812

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-31812 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (libpdfbox-java, libpdfbox2-java), 10 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 6, resolved 4. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-31812
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-31812
suse medium CVE-2021-31812 severity moderate: SUSE including 1 source package names (apache-pdfbox), 14 product×package rows across 14 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, SUSE Enterprise Storage 6, … (14 product lines)): Known Not Affected 14. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-31812/
ubuntu low CVE-2021-31812 low priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (libpdfbox-java, libpdfbox2-java), 32 status rows across 16 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 17, needs-triage 13, DNE 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-31812

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-31812

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
apache pdfbox >= 2.0.0, <= 2.0.23 cpe:2.3:a:apache:pdfbox:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 33 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:33:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 34 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:34:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_corporate_lending_process_management 14.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_corporate_lending_process_management:14.2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_corporate_lending_process_management 14.3.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_corporate_lending_process_management:14.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_corporate_lending_process_management 14.5.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_corporate_lending_process_management:14.5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_credit_facilities_process_management 14.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_credit_facilities_process_management:14.2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_credit_facilities_process_management 14.3.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_credit_facilities_process_management:14.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_credit_facilities_process_management 14.5.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_credit_facilities_process_management:14.5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_supply_chain_finance 14.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_supply_chain_finance:14.2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_supply_chain_finance 14.3.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_supply_chain_finance:14.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_supply_chain_finance 14.5.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_supply_chain_finance:14.5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle retail_customer_management_and_segmentation_foundation 18.1 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:retail_customer_management_and_segmentation_foundation:18.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle communications_messaging_server 8.1 cpe:2.3:o:oracle:communications_messaging_server:8.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-31812

URL Tags
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/06/12/1 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r132e9dbbe0ebdc08b39583d8be0a575fdba573d60a42d940228bceff%40%3Cnotifications.ofbiz.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r143fd8445e0e778f4a85187bd79438630b96b8040e9401751fdb8aea%40%3Ccommits.ofbiz.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r179cc3b6822c167702ab35fe36093d5da4c99af44238c8a754c6860f%40%3Ccommits.ofbiz.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r2090789e4dcc2c87aacbd87d5f18e2d64dcb9f6eb7c47f5cf7d293cb%40%3Cnotifications.ofbiz.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/ra2ab0ce69ce8aaff0773b8c1036438387ce004c2afc6f066626e205e%40%3Cusers.pdfbox.apache.org%3E Mailing List Vendor Advisory
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rd4b6db6c3b8ab3c70f1c3bbd725a40920896453ffc2744ade6afd9fb%40%3Cnotifications.ofbiz.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/re0cacd3fb337cdf8469853913ed2b4ddd8f8bfc52ff0ddbe61c1dfba%40%3Ccommits.ofbiz.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf251f6c358087107f8c23473468b279d59d50a75db6b4768165c78d3%40%3Cannounce.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rfe26bcaba564deb505c32711ba68df7ec589797dcd96ff3389a8aaba%40%3Cnotifications.ofbiz.apache.org%3E
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/7HHWJRFXZ3PTKLJCOM7WJEYZFKFWMNSV/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/MDJKJQOMVFDFIDS27OQJXNOYHV2O273D/
https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html Patch Third Party Advisory
https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujan2022.html Patch Third Party Advisory
https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujul2022.html
https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2021.html Patch Third Party Advisory
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