Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian
CVE-2017-9408
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 · uneditedIn Poppler 0.54.0, a memory leak vulnerability was found in the function Object::initArray in Object.cc, which allows attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted file.
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 memory leak vulnerability exists in Poppler 0.54.0 within the Object::initArray function in Object.cc. When processing a specially crafted PDF file, memory allocated during array initialization is not properly freed, leading to resource exhaustion and 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
Debian LinuxOperating system
= 8.0= 9.0= 0.54.0CVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/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 if Poppler is installedRun 'dpkg -l | grep poppler' on Debian-based systems, or 'rpm -qa | grep poppler' on RHEL-based systems. Alternatively, check for binary files like 'pdftotext', 'pdfinfo', or 'pdfimages' which are part of Poppler-utils.Affected if Poppler packages are present on the system
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Determine installed Poppler versionRun 'dpkg -l poppler-utils' or 'rpm -q poppler-utils' to see the exact version number. Compare against the affected version 0.54.0.Affected if The installed version is exactly 0.54.0
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Check if application uses Poppler librarySearch for processes or applications that link against libpoppler: run 'ldd <application_binary> | grep poppler' or check '/usr/lib/libpoppler*' files exist.Affected if Applications link to libpoppler and process PDF files
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Determine PDF processing contextIdentify if the system or any applications automatically process untrusted or user-submitted PDF files. Check cron jobs, web applications, or document processing services that handle PDFs.Affected if The system processes untrusted or externally-submitted PDF files using Poppler
A system is affected if it runs Poppler version 0.54.0 and processes untrusted PDF files through applications using the libpoppler library.
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 dataUpgrade to Poppler version 0.54.1 or later which contains the fix. If upgrade is not immediately feasible, implement process-level resource limits or restart processes periodically to mitigate prolonged exploitation.
Fix this in Debian Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 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 $2,272.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-9408 — 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-2017-9408 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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