Pillow: Unbounded recursion parsing a PDF page tree or trailer chain (incomplete fix for CVE-2026-42310)
Affects pillowSource GCVE Database
Mentioned vulnerabilities
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.7 High : upgrade to 13.0.0 soon.
Data as of 27 Oct 2026, 05:11 UTC
- EPSS
- 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 35% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
- Patch
- Available – fixed in 13.0.0
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:NExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 19 Oct 2026
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.
What to do
Upgrade pillow to 13.0.0.
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
Bitnamipillowpkg:bitnami/pillowOther threats | Affected
| Fixed in
|
Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.
Description
Pillow is a Python imaging library. From 5.1.0 until 13.0.0, Pillow can exhaust resources while parsing an existing PDF during an append operation. PdfParser follows page-tree child references without cycle or duplication tracking and follows previous-trailer chains with only an exact repeated-offset guard, so deep or cyclic page trees and long chains of unique trailer offsets can exhaust the Python stack. Repeated non-cyclic /Kids references can also cause super-linear CPU and memory use. An attacker can supply such a PDF to an application that calls Image.save with PDF append enabled. This can raise an uncaught RecursionError or consume excessive CPU and memory before output is written, causing denial of service. This issue is fixed in version 13.0.0.
References
- github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/commit/e2ae7eacad6de68c37eb28b633a97bebacf2c5bf (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/releases/tag/13.0.0 (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/security/advisories/GHSA-p4wg-p73j-c528 (opens in a new tab)
- nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-112895 (opens in a new tab)