Your RSA-2048 keys break in 2030. Find every one of them before attackers do.
Not in CISA KEV

CVE-2026-102996 — Py-pdf

Fix: py-pdf/pypdf@0fb26eb

CVE-2026-102996 is a Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.

pypdf is a free and open-source pure-python PDF library. Prior to 6.18.1, a crafted PDF can provide a TrueType or Type1 simple font with an unusually large /Widths array, causing pypdf/_font.py…

Published
Updated
Affected
1 product
Patched
See advisory
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Oct 5, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

No confirmed exploitation observed yet

  • CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
  • CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-102996.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
0.3%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk-0.22%
Lower risk than most CVEs21th percentile — riskier than 21% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
0.00%0.34%0.68%1.02%0.5%0.3%Oct 26Oct 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

Description

pypdf is a free and open-source pure-python PDF library. Prior to 6.18.1, a crafted PDF can provide a TrueType or Type1 simple font with an unusually large /Widths array, causing pypdf/_font.py Font._collect_tt_t1_character_widths to process entries beyond the 256 character codes meaningful for a simple font and consume excessive memory during operations such as text extraction. This issue is fixed in version 6.18.1.

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations
Application
pypdfpypdf_project
< 6.18.1
range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Vulnerability
  1. Detect

    Identify every host running the affected component and compare the installed build against the fixed version below — for source-built or distro-packaged software the version string, not a lockfile, is the source of truth (`dpkg -l`, `rpm -q`, or the binary's own `--version`).

  2. Remediation status

    No fixed release is recorded for CVE-2026-102996 yet. Track the upstream advisory, and apply the exposure-reduction steps below in the meantime.

  3. Mitigate without a patch

    Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.

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.

Red HatImportant

This Important impact flaw can exhaust memory when a Red Hat service extracts text from a crafted PDF with an oversized font width array.

Workaround published by Red Hat
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.
Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2026-102996 (CC BY 4.0)

Frequently Asked Questions

pypdf is a free and open-source pure-python PDF library. Prior to 6.18.1, a crafted PDF can provide a TrueType or Type1 simple font with an unusually large /Widths array, causing pypdf/_font.py Font._collect_tt_t1_character_widths to process entries beyond the 256 character codes meaningful for a simple font and consume excessive memory during operations such as text extraction. This issue is fixed in version 6.18.1.
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2026-102996 in your dependencies?

Find it across , including transitive dependencies.

CVE-2026-102996: Py-pdf | O3 Security