dbcve.org
Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2022-38784

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-08-30
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 22.08.0 or later.
See remediation →
81/100
Remediation priority · High
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
Poppler prior to and including 22.08.0 contains an integer overflow in the JBIG2 decoder (JBIG2Stream::readTextRegionSeg() in JBIGStream.cc). Processing a specially crafted PDF file or JBIG2 image could lead to a crash or the execution of arbitrary code. This is similar to the vulnerability described by CVE-2022-38171 in Xpdf.

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-190

An arithmetic operation produces a value too large for its type and wraps around to an unexpected — often tiny or negative — number. That miscalculated value then drives a memory allocation or a bounds check, opening the door to corruption. The fix is checked arithmetic and validating sizes before they're used.

General guidance for the integer overflow 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
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 10.0= 11.0
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 35= 36= 37
PopplerApplication
Affected:<= 22.08.0

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

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 22.08.0
Vendor patch gitlab.freedesktop.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Poppler 22.09.0 or later (or distribution-provided patched version for Debian 10/11 and Fedora 35/36/37)

  1. 1. Identify the Poppler library version currently installed (e.g., via 'poppler-utils --version' or checking package manager)
  2. 2. For Debian 10/11: Run 'apt update' then 'apt upgrade poppler-utils' or 'apt install --only-upgrade poppler-utils' to get the patched version
  3. 3. For Fedora 35/36/37: Run 'dnf update poppler' or 'dnf upgrade poppler-utils' to receive the updated package
  4. 4. Verify the new version is greater than 22.08.0 by running 'poppler-utils --version'
  5. 5. Test critical PDF processing workflows to ensure functionality is unaffected
Caveat Minimal risk; upgrades address the security issue without known breaking API changes for typical PDF processing workflows

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

We can identify the exact fixed release, upgrade, and verify it in staging — typical engagement from $3,200. Get the upgrade done

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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-2022-38784 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
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