# CVE-2018-7453: Denial of service in n/a

> Attackers can cause denial of service in xpdf by providing a malicious PDF file that triggers infinite recursion during form scanning.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** No
- **Published:** 24 Feb 2018
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2018-7453, GHSA-9qfw-47fx-pxvc, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-7453

## What is CVE-2018-7453?

CVE-2018-7453 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Xpdfreader Xpdf, published on 24 Feb 2018. 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

Infinite recursion in AcroForm::scanField in AcroForm.cc in xpdf 4.00 allows attackers to launch denial of service via a specific pdf file due to lack of loop checking, as demonstrated by pdftohtml.

Weakness: CWE-835 (Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-7453?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Xpdfreader Xpdf.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-7453?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-7453 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-7453 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-7453 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Xpdfreader Xpdf

- [CVE-2022-38928](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-38928/): Null dereference in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2022-38222](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-38222/): Use after free in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2022-33108](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-33108/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2022-30524](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-30524/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2020-24996](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-24996/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-7453 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-7453 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Xpdfreader Xpdf, published on 24 Feb 2018. 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 CVE-2018-7453 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Xpdfreader Xpdf. 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/CVE-2018-7453/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-7453/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-7453
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-7453
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-7453

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-7453/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.