PdfApplication · Irfanview

CVE-2017-15258

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-10-11
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
IrfanView version 4.44 (32bit) with PDF plugin version 4.43 allows attackers to cause a denial of service or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted .pdf file, related to a "Read Access Violation starting at PDF!xmlParserInputRead+0x0000000000161a9c."

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

This is a memory corruption vulnerability in IrfanView's PDF plugin (version 4.43) when parsing a crafted PDF file. The vulnerability manifests as a read access violation in the xmlParserInputRead function, indicating an out-of-bounds read that can cause denial of service or potentially allow arbitrary code execution.

MitigationUpdate IrfanView and its PDF plugin to patched versions that address this vulnerability. Until then, avoid opening untrusted or unexpected PDF files with IrfanView.

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
PdfApplication
Affected:= 4.43
IrfanviewApplication
Affected:= 4.44

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. Locate IrfanView installation
    Check for IrfanView in typical installation paths: C:\Program Files\IrfanView or C:\Program Files (x86)\IrfanView. Look for i_view32.exe or i_view64.exe.
    Affected if IrfanView is installed in one of these locations
  2. Check IrfanView executable version
    Right-click the IrfanView executable (i_view32.exe or i_view64.exe), select Properties, and view the Version tab to find the product version.
    Affected if The version shown is 4.44 (the affected version listed in the CVE data)
  3. Locate PDF plugin file
    Navigate to the IrfanView plugins folder (usually C:\Program Files\IrfanView\plugins or within the main IrfanView folder) and locate PDF.dll.
    Affected if PDF.dll exists in the plugins directory
  4. Check PDF plugin version
    Right-click PDF.dll, select Properties, and view the Version tab to find the file version or product version.
    Affected if The version is 4.43 (the specific affected version for the PDF plugin)
  5. Confirm plugin would be loaded
    Verify that the PDF.dll file is present and not renamed or disabled. IrfanView automatically loads plugins from the plugins folder when parsing PDF files.
    Affected if PDF.dll is present and the user opens a PDF file with IrfanView

If IrfanView version 4.44 or PDF plugin version 4.43 is detected and the PDF plugin is present, the environment is affected by this vulnerability when processing untrusted PDF files.

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 IrfanView and its PDF plugin to patched versions that address this vulnerability. Until then, avoid opening untrusted or unexpected PDF files with IrfanView.

Fix this in Pdf Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $860
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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-2017-15258 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