CVE-2016-4062
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 · uneditedFoxit Reader and PhantomPDF before 7.3.4 on Windows improperly report format errors recursively, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application hang) via a crafted PDF.
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 confidenceFoxit Reader and PhantomPDF before version 7.3.4 on Windows contain a vulnerability where the application improperly handles format errors in PDF files recursively. When a user opens a crafted malicious PDF with format errors, the application enters an infinite recursive error-reporting loop, causing the application to hang and resulting in a denial of service.
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<= 7.3.0.118<= 7.3.0.118CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
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 Foxit productsOpen Windows Control Panel and go to Programs and Features, or run 'Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | DisplayName' in PowerShell to list installed softwareAffected if Foxit Reader or PhantomPDF appears in the installed programs list
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Check Foxit Reader versionRight-click the Foxit Reader desktop shortcut or executable, select Properties, and view the Details tab for the Version number, or open Foxit Reader and go to Help > About Foxit ReaderAffected if The displayed version is 7.3.0.118 or earlier
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Check PhantomPDF versionRight-click the PhantomPDF desktop shortcut or executable, select Properties, and view the Details tab for the Version number, or open PhantomPDF and go to Help > About PhantomPDFAffected if The displayed version is 7.3.0.118 or earlier
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Compare against affected rangeCompare your installed version number to the affected range: versions 7.3.0.118 and earlier for either product are vulnerableAffected if The installed version is 7.3.0.118 or any earlier version number
If Foxit Reader or PhantomPDF version 7.3.0.118 or earlier is installed on Windows, the environment is affected by this CVE.
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 Foxit Reader and PhantomPDF to version 7.3.4 or later. Organizations should deploy the update via patch management systems to ensure all affected endpoints receive the fix.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-4062 — 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-2016-4062 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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