# ALBA-2021:3596: poppler bug fix and enhancement update

> An attacker can cause a denial of service by tricking a user into opening a specially crafted PDF document with the Poppler library.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 21 Sep 2021

## What is ALBA-2021:3596?

ALBA-2021:3596 is a denial of service vulnerability in poppler-cpp, published on 21 Sep 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Poppler is a Portable Document Format (PDF) rendering library, used by
applications such as Evince.

Bug Fix(es) and Enhancement(s):

* Unable to open certain PDF documents (BZ#2002638)

## Which versions are affected by ALBA-2021:3596?


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `poppler-cpp` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 20.11.0-2.el8_4.1 |
| `poppler-cpp-devel` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 20.11.0-2.el8_4.1 |
| `poppler-devel` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 20.11.0-2.el8_4.1 |
| `poppler-glib-devel` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 20.11.0-2.el8_4.1 |
| `poppler-qt5` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 20.11.0-2.el8_4.1 |
| `poppler-qt5-devel` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 20.11.0-2.el8_4.1 |

## How do I fix ALBA-2021:3596?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is ALBA-2021:3596 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of ALBA-2021:3596 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for ALBA-2021:3596 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: ALBA-2021:3596 is a denial of service vulnerability in poppler-cpp, published on 21 Sep 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of ALBA-2021:3596 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: poppler-cpp. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/ALBA-2021-3596/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/ALBA-2021-3596/index.md)
```

## Sources

- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/ALBA-2021:3596

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/ALBA-2021-3596/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.