CVE-2018-17057 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in tecnickcom/tcpdf. 2 public exploit or proof-of-concept references are indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for tecnickcom/tcpdf — see the affected versions and patch details below.
TCPDF vulnerable to attackers triggering deserialization of arbitrary data
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
tecnickcom/tcpdf🐘fooman/tcpdf🐘la-haute-societe/tcpdf🐘spoonity/tcpdfReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
An issue was discovered in TCPDF before 6.2.22. Attackers can trigger deserialization of arbitrary data via the phar:// wrapper.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | tecnickcom/tcpdf | all versions | 6.2.22composer require tecnickcom/tcpdf:^6.2.22 |
| 🐘Packagist | fooman/tcpdf | all versions | 6.2.22composer require fooman/tcpdf:^6.2.22 |
| 🐘Packagist | la-haute-societe/tcpdf | all versions | 6.2.22composer require la-haute-societe/tcpdf:^6.2.22 |
| 🐘Packagist | spoonity/tcpdf | all versions | 6.2.22composer require spoonity/tcpdf:^6.2.22 |
Affected Products
limesurveylimesurveytcpdftecnickResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
LimeSurvey < 3.16 - Remote Code Execution
by q3rv0 · Apr 2, 2019
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for tecnickcom/tcpdf, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update tecnickcom/tcpdf to 6.2.22 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2018-17057 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Do not deserialise data from untrusted sources: where the format allows it, restrict deserialisation to an explicit allowlist of expected types, and prefer a data-only format (JSON, Protobuf) over one that can reconstruct arbitrary objects until you can upgrade.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2018-17057 in your dependencies?
Find it across Packagist, including transitive dependencies.