Absolute Pdf ServerApplication · Investintech

CVE-2011-4223

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2011-11-01
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Unspecified vulnerability in Investintech.com Absolute PDF Server allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted PDF document.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

Investintech Absolute PDF Server contains an unspecified vulnerability in its PDF processing logic that can be exploited remotely via a crafted malicious PDF document. The attack requires no authentication and can result in application crash (denial of service) or potential arbitrary code execution on the target system.

MitigationApply vendor patches or upgrade to the latest version of Investintech Absolute PDF Server; implement file-based input validation and sandboxing for PDF processing to mitigate risks from untrusted documents.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Absolute Pdf ServerApplication
Affected:all versions

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm Investintech Absolute PDF Server installation
    Check Windows Programs and Features (appwiz.cpl) or the installed software list for 'Investintech Absolute PDF Server' or search the Windows registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for the product name
    Affected if The product 'Investintech Absolute PDF Server' appears in installed programs or registry
  2. Verify the specific product executable
    Search for 'AbsolutePDFServer.exe' or 'AbsPDFServer.exe' in program directories, commonly under C:\Program Files\Investintech\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Investintech\
    Affected if The executable file named Absolute PDF Server is found on the system
  3. Confirm PDF processing service is running
    Open Services.msc and look for a service related to 'Absolute PDF Server' or check if the application process is running (look for process names containing 'AbsolutePDF' or 'AbsPDF')
    Affected if The Absolute PDF Server service or process is running or installed as a Windows service
  4. Check if the web/remote interface is enabled
    Review the application configuration files (typically in the installation directory with .ini, .xml, or .config extensions) for settings enabling HTTP/TCP listeners or remote PDF conversion services
    Affected if Network or remote processing features are enabled in the configuration since the vulnerability is exploitable remotely via crafted PDF documents

If Investintech Absolute PDF Server is installed and running (regardless of version, as all versions are affected), the environment is vulnerable to this CVE when processing untrusted PDF documents.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply vendor patches or upgrade to the latest version of Investintech Absolute PDF Server; implement file-based input validation and sandboxing for PDF processing to mitigate risks from untrusted documents.

Fix this in Absolute Pdf Server Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation24.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA6.0 h
50.0 hours of engineering $8,800
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2011-4223 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data