CVE-2018-8036 — pdfbox
MEDIUMCVE-2018-8036 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-835 vulnerability in org.apache.pdfbox:pdfbox. A fix is available for org.apache.pdfbox:pdfbox — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition in Apache PDFBox
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2018-8036 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
org.apache.pdfbox:pdfbox☕org.apache.pdfbox:pdfboxReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
In Apache PDFBox 1.8.0 to 1.8.14 and 2.0.0RC1 to 2.0.10, a carefully crafted (or fuzzed) file can trigger an infinite loop which leads to an out of memory exception in Apache PDFBox's AFMParser.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.pdfbox:pdfbox | ≥ 1.8.0&&< 1.8.15 | 1.8.15org.apache.pdfbox:pdfbox:1.8.15 |
| ☕Maven | org.apache.pdfbox:pdfbox | ≥ 2.0.0RC1&&< 2.0.11 | 2.0.11org.apache.pdfbox:pdfbox:2.0.11 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.apache.pdfbox:pdfbox, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.apache.pdfbox:pdfbox to 1.8.15 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2018-8036 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2018-8036 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2018-8036. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
While Fuse 6.3 and Fuse 7.0 ship vulnerable artifact via camel-pdfbox, however, the flawed code is not being used therefore no execution path leads to an exposure to this vulnerability, so both Fuse 6.3, 7 standalone are not affected. However, Fuse 7.0 on OpenShift ship vulnerable artifact via maven BOM, so setting…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat JBoss Fuse 7 | pdfbox | RHSA-2018:2669 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2018-8036 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2018-8036 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.