Foxit ReaderApplication · Foxitsoftware

CVE-2019-8342

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2019-05-13
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click

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
A Local Privilege Escalation in libqcocoa.dylib in Foxit Reader 3.1.0.0111 on macOS has been discovered due to an incorrect permission set.

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 local privilege escalation vulnerability exists in libqcocoa.dylib in Foxit Reader 3.1.0.0117 on macOS due to incorrect permission settings on the library file, allowing a local attacker to execute code with elevated privileges.

MitigationUpdate Foxit Reader to the latest patched version. If an update is unavailable, manually review and correct file permissions on the Foxit installation directory to remove overly permissive access.

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
Foxit ReaderApplication
Affected:= 3.1.0.0111

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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/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. Check installed Foxit Reader version
    Open Foxit Reader, go to Help > About Foxit Reader, or check /Applications/Foxit Reader.app/Contents/Info.plist for CFBundleShortVersionString
    Affected if Version equals 3.1.0.0111 (exact match to affected version)
  2. Locate libqcocoa.dylib in Foxit installation
    Navigate to /Applications/Foxit Reader.app/Contents/Frameworks/ and locate libqcocoa.dylib
    Affected if The file exists in this location (required for vulnerability to apply)
  3. Inspect file permissions on libqcocoa.dylib
    Run 'ls -la /Applications/Foxit Reader.app/Contents/Frameworks/libqcocoa.dylib' in Terminal to view permission bits
    Affected if Permissions show world-writable (o+w) or overly permissive settings such as 777 or 755 with unexpected write access for non-owners
  4. Verify permission owner and group
    Check the owner and group of libqcocoa.dylib from the ls -la output
    Affected if Permissions allow write access by users other than the file owner (world-writable or group-writable)

User is affected if Foxit Reader version is exactly 3.1.0.0111 AND libqcocoa.dylib has world-writable or overly permissive access settings that allow unprivileged users to modify the 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 Foxit Reader to the latest patched version. If an update is unavailable, manually review and correct file permissions on the Foxit installation directory to remove overly permissive access.

Fix this in Foxit Reader Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
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Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2019-8342 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