GHSA-j2xq-pfff-mvgg — pdfbox
MEDIUMGHSA-j2xq-pfff-mvgg 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
GHSA-j2xq-pfff-mvgg 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 379,842 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 GHSA-j2xq-pfff-mvgg is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
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.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-j2xq-pfff-mvgg can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-j2xq-pfff-mvgg. 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 GHSA-j2xq-pfff-mvgg in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-j2xq-pfff-mvgg across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.