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MupdfApplication · Artifex

CVE-2020-26683

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-08-22
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Public exploit No privileges Patch available

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 memory leak issue discovered in /pdf/pdf-font-add.c in Artifex Software MuPDF 1.17.0 allows attackers to obtain sensitive information.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-401

Allocated memory is never released on some path, so a long-running service or a repeatedly triggered request steadily consumes memory until performance degrades or the process crashes. Attackers exploit it by simply driving the leaking path. Remediation is pairing every allocation with a release and using ownership patterns or tooling to catch what leaks.

General guidance for the memory leak class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
MupdfApplication
Affected:= 1.17.0

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
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

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.

dbcve · scoped
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch bugs.ghostscript.com →
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

MuPDF 1.18.x or later (latest stable release)

  1. 1. Identify the current MuPDF version in use by checking your application's dependencies or binary
  2. 2. Obtain the latest stable version of MuPDF from the official repository at https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/mupdf or official release pages
  3. 3. Review the release notes for versions after 1.17.0 to confirm the fix for CVE-2020-26683 is included
  4. 4. Download the updated MuPDF library (preferably the latest stable release such as 1.18.x or newer)
  5. 5. Replace the existing MuPDF 1.17.0 library files with the new version
  6. 6. Rebuild and recompile any applications that link against MuPDF
  7. 7. Test the application functionality to ensure the upgrade does not break existing features
  8. 8. Verify that the memory leak in pdf-font-add.c is resolved by running memory profiling tools if available
Caveat Review release notes for any API changes between 1.17.0 and the target version; some function signatures or behaviors may have changed

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

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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-2020-26683 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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