Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian
CVE-2015-1259
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 · uneditedPDFium, as used in Google Chrome before 43.0.2357.65, does not properly initialize memory, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service or possibly have unspecified other impact via unknown vectors.
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 confidencePDFium, the PDF rendering library used in Google Chrome, contains a memory initialization vulnerability where memory is not properly initialized before use. This can lead to information disclosure via uninitialized memory contents, denial of service through crashes, or potentially arbitrary code execution depending on how the uninitialized data is processed.
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
Debian LinuxOperating system
= 8.0
ChromeWeb browser
<= 42.0.2311.152CVSS 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
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed Google Chrome versionOpen Google Chrome, click the menu icon (three dots) in the top right, select Help, then About Google Chrome. The version number is displayed on this page.Affected if Version number is less than or equal to 42.0.2311.152 (e.g., 42.0.2311.152, 42.0.2311.135, 41.x.x.x, etc.)
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Check Chrome version via command line (Windows)Open Command Prompt and run: reg query "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Google Chrome" /v VersionAffected if The returned version value is <= 42.0.2311.152
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Check Chrome version via command line (macOS)Open Terminal and run: /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --versionAffected if The returned version is <= 42.0.2311.152
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Verify Debian Linux version (if applicable)Run: cat /etc/debian_version or lsb_release -rAffected if Version shows 8.0 (jessie) and Google Chrome <= 42.0.2311.152 is installed
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Confirm PDFium library presenceOn Linux, check for libpdfium.so in /opt/google/chrome/ or similar Chrome installation directoriesAffected if The library exists and the Chrome version is <= 42.0.2311.152
You are affected if Google Chrome version is 42.0.2311.152 or lower, or if running Debian 8.0 with the vulnerable Chrome version installed.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataUpdate Google Chrome to version 43.0.2357.65 or later to obtain the patched PDFium library. Organizations should apply the update through their patch management processes and verify stable operation.
Fix this in Debian Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,696.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-1259 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2015-1259 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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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.
- 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
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