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HIGH severity

lopdf has a stack overflow via deeply nested PDF objectsGHSA-6fj4-rcr3-r7rr

HIGHFix: J-F-Liu/lopdf#503

GHSA-6fj4-rcr3-r7rr is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) remote code execution vulnerability in lopdf. A fix is available for lopdf — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Also known asRUSTSEC-2026-0187
Published
Updated
Affected
1 pkg
Patched
1 / 1
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Oct 17, 2026 · OSV.dev, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected
🦀lopdf

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

lopdf::Document::load_mem (and the other load* entry points) parses nested PDF arrays and dictionaries with unbounded recursion. A small crafted PDF whose Catalog contains a deeply nested array (/X [[[ … ]]], on the order of 10,000 levels) exhausts the call stack and aborts the process with SIGABRT.

Because this is a stack-overflow abort rather than a panic!, it cannot be caught with catch_unwind: any service that parses untrusted PDF input with lopdf can be crashed by a ~21 KB file, resulting in a denial of service.

Confirmed on lopdf 0.41.0 and earlier; fixed in 0.42.0. Default configuration, no features changed.

Proof of concept

fn main() {
    let bytes = std::fs::read("poc.pdf").unwrap(); // ~10,380-deep nested array in the Catalog
    let _ = lopdf::Document::load_mem(&bytes);     // stack overflow -> SIGABRT
}

An equivalent PoC is a minimal PDF whose Catalog /X value is "[" * 10380 + "]" * 10380.

Suggested fix

Enforce a maximum object-nesting depth in the parser and return an Err instead of recursing without bound.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
🦀crates.iolopdfall versions0.42.0cargo update -p lopdf --precise 0.42.0

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency
  1. Detect

    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for lopdf, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

  2. Fix

    Update lopdf to 0.42.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-6fj4-rcr3-r7rr is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. Workarounds

    Stop feeding it untrusted input: reject or quarantine files and payloads from unverified sources until you can upgrade, restrict accepted formats to the ones you actually need, and run the parsing or decoding step in a least-privileged sandbox or short-lived worker so a crash or corrupted read cannot reach the rest of the process.

Frequently Asked Questions

`lopdf::Document::load_mem` (and the other `load*` entry points) parses nested PDF arrays and dictionaries with unbounded recursion. A small crafted PDF whose Catalog contains a deeply nested array (`/X [[[ … ]]]`, on the order of 10,000 levels) exhausts the call stack and aborts the process with `SIGABRT`. Because this is a stack-overflow abort rather than a `panic!`, it cannot be caught with `catch_unwind`: any service that parses untrusted PDF input with lopdf can be crashed by a ~21 KB file, resulting in a denial of service. Confirmed on lopdf 0.41.0 and earlier; fixed in 0.42.0. Default
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is GHSA-6fj4-rcr3-r7rr in your dependencies?

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lopdf has a stack overflow via deeply nested PDF objects