VulnerabilityPublished 1 Oct 2025Updated 27 Oct 2025

CVE-2025-46205: podofo · Use After Free

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.1 High.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 15:59 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

8.1High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 33% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 1 Oct 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

AI-suggested

Immediately audit and inventory all systems and applications using podofo versions 0.10.0 to 0.10.5 to identify exposure.
Until patches are available, restrict or block processing of untrusted PDF files, especially from external or unknown sources.
Implement PDF sanitization tools that can detect and remove suspicious or malformed PDF objects before processing.
Employ network-level protections such as email gateway filters and endpoint security solutions to detect and quarantine malicious PDFs.
Educate users to avoid opening PDFs from untrusted or unexpected sources to reduce risk of user-interaction exploitation.
Monitor vendor communications for patches or updates and apply them promptly once released.
Consider deploying application-level sandboxing or isolation for PDF processing components to contain potential crashes or exploits.
Enable detailed logging and anomaly detection on PDF processing services to identify exploitation attempts early.
Collaborate with cybersecurity communities to share indicators and detection techniques related to this vulnerability.
Evaluate alternative PDF libraries with active support and security track records if podofo usage is critical and patches are delayed.

Description

A heap-use-after free in the PdfTokenizer::ReadDictionary function of podofo v0.10.0 to v0.10.5 allows attackers to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) by supplying a crafted PDF file. NOTE: this is disputed by the Supplier because there is no available file to reproduce the issue.

Impact

For European organizations, the primary impact is service disruption due to application crashes when processing malicious PDFs, which can affect business continuity especially in sectors heavily reliant on document workflows such as finance, legal, and government. The high confidentiality and integrity impact ratings suggest that if exploited beyond DoS, sensitive information could be exposed or altered, posing compliance and reputational risks under regulations like GDPR. Since the attack requires user interaction, phishing or social engineering campaigns could be vectors for exploitation. Organizations using podofo in automated document processing or embedded systems may face increased risk if untrusted PDFs are ingested without validation. The lack of available patches increases exposure time, and the dispute from the supplier may delay remediation efforts. Overall, the threat could disrupt critical document handling services and potentially lead to data breaches if further exploitation techniques emerge.

Summary

CVE-2025-46205 identifies a heap-use-after-free vulnerability in the PdfTokenizer::ReadDictionary function within the podofo library versions 0.10.0 through 0.10.5. Heap-use-after-free (CWE-416) occurs when a program continues to use memory after it has been freed, leading to undefined behavior that can be exploited to cause crashes or potentially execute arbitrary code. In this case, the vulnerability is triggered by processing a crafted PDF file that manipulates the dictionary parsing logic, causing the program to access freed heap memory. The primary impact is a Denial of Service (DoS) by crashing the application or causing instability. The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N) indicates that the attack can be launched remotely over the network with low attack complexity, no privileges required, but requires user interaction (opening the malicious PDF). The scope is unchanged, but the impact on confidentiality and integrity is high, suggesting potential for information disclosure or data manipulation beyond DoS, although no exploitation in the wild has been reported. The supplier disputes the vulnerability due to lack of a reproducible test case, which complicates verification and patch development. No patches or mitigations have been officially released yet. The vulnerability affects applications and services that rely on podofo for PDF parsing, which may include document viewers, converters, or automated PDF processing pipelines.

CWE-416Use After Free (opens in a new tab)
Variant weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #7
The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.
Architecture and Design · Language Selection
Choose a language that provides automatic memory management.
Implementation · Attack Surface Reduction
When freeing pointers, be sure to set them to NULL once they are freed. However, the utilization of multiple or complex data structures may lower the usefulness of this strategy.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
XML Security (opens in a new tab)
Mass Assignment (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V13.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.3 (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 27 Oct 2025, 05:22 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-416

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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