dbcve.org
PopplerApplication · Freedesktop

CVE-2017-14617

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-09-20
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
81/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges

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
In Poppler 0.59.0, a floating point exception occurs in the ImageStream class in Stream.cc, which may lead to a potential attack when handling malicious PDF files.

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

A floating point exception vulnerability exists in Poppler 0.59.0 within the ImageStream class in Stream.cc. When processing maliciously crafted PDF files, the library triggers an FPE that can cause denial of service or potentially enable code execution, reflected in the high CVSS score of 7.8.

MitigationUpdate Poppler to a patched version beyond 0.59.0. If immediate patching is not feasible, implement PDF input validation or sandboxing to detect and reject malformed PDF files before processing.

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
PopplerApplication
Affected:= 0.59.0

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/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 checks

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

  1. Verify Poppler is installed
    Run 'pdftoppm -v' or check your system's package manager for poppler-utils (e.g., dpkg -l | grep poppler, rpm -qa | grep poppler)
    Affected if Poppler utilities are present on the system
  2. Confirm the exact Poppler version
    Run 'pdftoppm -v' and note the version number displayed, or use 'pdfunite -v' if available
    Affected if The reported version is exactly 0.59.0
  3. Identify applications using Poppler
    Check for tools that depend on Poppler such as PDF viewers (e.g., Evince, Okular), image converters (pdfimages, pdftoppm), or custom applications linking to libpoppler
    Affected if Applications that process PDF files are in use on the system

You are affected if Poppler version 0.59.0 is installed and any application or tool is used to process PDF files with that library.

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

Update Poppler to a patched version beyond 0.59.0. If immediate patching is not feasible, implement PDF input validation or sandboxing to detect and reject malformed PDF files before processing.

Fix this in Poppler Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,920
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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-2017-14617 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