CVE-2016-8729
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 · uneditedAn exploitable memory corruption vulnerability exists in the JBIG2 parser of Artifex MuPDF 1.9. A specially crafted PDF can cause a negative number to be passed to a memset resulting in memory corruption and potential code execution. An attacker can specially craft a PDF and send to the victim to trigger this vulnerability.
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 confidenceA signed integer overflow vulnerability exists in the JBIG2 parser of Artifex MuPDF 1.9 where a negative value is passed as the size parameter to memset. This causes memory corruption since memset interprets the large negative value as an enormous unsigned size, potentially allowing code execution when processing a specially crafted PDF.
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= 1.9CVSS 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
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/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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Confirm MuPDF installationRun 'mupdf -v' or check the application's version through its packaging system (dpkg, rpm, or package manager)Affected if MuPDF version displays as 1.9 specifically
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Identify the MuPDF binary or libraryLocate the mupdf executable or shared library (e.g., libmupdf.so) and run 'file' on it, or query the package manager for installed MuPDF packagesAffected if The binary/library version resolves to 1.9
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Check JBIG2 support statusInspect MuPDF configuration or runtime settings for JBIG2 image decoding support; some builds may have JBIG2 disabled by defaultAffected if JBIG2 rendering is enabled (vulnerability only triggers when processing JBIG2-encoded content in PDFs)
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Review PDF processing logs or behaviorIf you process PDFs through MuPDF, monitor for crashes or abnormal memory behavior when opening PDFs containing JBIG2 image streamsAffected if MuPDF 1.9 processes PDFs containing JBIG2 images and exhibits memory corruption or crashes
You are affected if MuPDF version 1.9 is installed with JBIG2 rendering enabled and you process PDF files containing JBIG2 image content.
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 MuPDF to a patched version that includes proper bounds validation before the memset call in the JBIG2 parser, or disable JBIG2 rendering if updates are not immediately feasible.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,416.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-8729 — 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-2016-8729 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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- 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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