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Ubuntu LinuxOperating system · Canonical

CVE-2013-4474

MEDIUM · 5.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2013-11-23
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 0.24.1 or later.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
Format string vulnerability in the extractPages function in utils/pdfseparate.cc in poppler before 0.24.3 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via format string specifiers in a destination filename.

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 · high confidence

Format string vulnerability in the extractPages function in poppler's pdfseparate utility allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) by including format string specifiers (like %s, %x) in the destination filename argument, which gets passed unsanitized to format functions.

MitigationUpgrade poppler to version 0.24.3 or later, which contains the fix for proper sanitization of the destination filename in the extractPages function.

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
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 12.04= 14.04= 15.10
PopplerApplication
Affected:<= 0.24.1= 0.1= 0.1.1= 0.1.2= 0.2.0= 0.3.0= 0.3.1= 0.3.2= 0.3.3= 0.4.0= 0.4.1= 0.4.2

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
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

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. Check if poppler-utils package is installed
    On Debian/Ubuntu systems, run: dpkg -l | grep poppler-utils
    Affected if The package is not installed or not found, the system is not vulnerable via this vector
  2. Determine installed poppler version
    Run: poppler-utils --version or pdfseparate --version
    Affected if Version is 0.24.1 or lower, or matches any of these specific versions: 0.1, 0.1.1, 0.1.2, 0.2.0, 0.3.0, 0.3.1, 0.3.2, 0.3.3, 0.4.0, 0.4.1, 0.4.2
  3. Verify pdfseparate binary exists
    Run: which pdfseparate or locate pdfseparate
    Affected if The binary does not exist, the vulnerability cannot be triggered
  4. Check Ubuntu release version
    Run: lsb_release -r or check /etc/lsb-release
    Affected if Running Ubuntu 12.04, 14.04, or 15.10 with poppler-utils installed

You are affected if pdfseparate from poppler-utils is installed and the version falls within the affected ranges (0.24.1 or lower, or specific older versions listed) on Ubuntu 12.04/14.04/15.10.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 0.24.1
Interim mitigation

Upgrade poppler to version 0.24.3 or later, which contains the fix for proper sanitization of the destination filename in the extractPages function.

Fix this in Ubuntu Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,390
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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-2013-4474 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