GHSA-jrmc-qg6p-94fp: veraPDF Parser DoS via PostScript CMap Streams
Summary
Description
A PostScript-interpreter-driven Denial of Service (CWE-1325) vulnerability in veraPDF allows a remote attacker to exhaust validator memory or CPU by submitting a PDF whose Type 0 font /Encoding (or any /ToUnicode) is a CMap stream containing attacker-supplied PostScript. veraPDF reuses its CMap parser as a general PostScript interpreter and exposes the unguarded array N allocation operator and the for control operator with no zero-increment guard. This affects all current versions of veraPDF-parser.
Details
The vulnerability resides in veraPDF-parser. CMap streams referenced as a Type 0 font's /Encoding (or any font's /ToUnicode) are parsed by CMapParser (veraPDF-parser/src/main/java/org/verapdf/pd/font/cmap/CMapParser.java), which extends PSParser. Tokens that are not the small CMap-specific keyword set (begincodespacerange, bfchar, cidchar, ...) fall through to PSObject.execute (veraPDF-parser/src/main/java/org/verapdf/parser/postscript/PSObject.java), which dispatches generic PostScript operators implemented in PSOperator (veraPDF-parser/src/main/java/org/verapdf/parser/postscript/PSOperator.java).
Two operators in that interpreter take their bound from the PDF and apply no validation:
1. array at PSOperator.java:536-547 pops the top number from the operand stack and immediately calls COSArray.construct(arraySize), then loops arraySize times appending COSObject.getEmpty(). COSArray.construct(int) calls new ArrayList<>(arraySize) (COSArray.java:102), so the underlying Object[] is allocated up-front. Passing 2147483647 (Integer.MAX_VALUE) requests a 16 GB backing array on a 64-bit JVM.
2. for at PSOperator.java:571-592 reads initial, increment, and limit from the stack and loops for (long i = initial; i <= limit; i += increment). Because increment is unchecked, 0 0 1 { } for produces an infinite-CPU spin (and progressively a heap exhaustion as each iteration pushes i onto the operand stack).
CMapFactory.getCMap only catches IOException and
Details
Original advisory: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-jrmc-qg6p-94fp
Exploitation outlook
EPSS (FIRST.org) estimates each CVE’s probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — here is the CSIRTS.com read on those numbers.
- Low exploitation riskCVE-2026-540800.30% 30-day exploitation probability — currently an unlikely target, but scores change as exploit code circulates. Riskier than 23% of all scored CVEs.
Referenced CVEs
| CVE | CSIRTS overview | External |
|---|---|---|
| CVE-2026-54080 | coverage & exploitation status | NVD · CVE.org |
Same CVEs, other sources
How other CERTs, PSIRTs and databases cover the vulnerabilities in this advisory.
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