# CVE-2019-9545: Denial of service in n/a

> A crafted PDF file can trigger a recursive function call in Poppler, causing a segmentation fault and denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 8.8 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 1 Mar 2019
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2019-9545, ECHO-85ae-1b9c-0bb1, GHSA-qhp4-37x2-x9w9, UBUNTU-CVE-2019-9545

## What is CVE-2019-9545?

CVE-2019-9545 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Freedesktop Poppler, published on 1 Mar 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

An issue was discovered in Poppler 0.74.0. A recursive function call, in JBIG2Stream::readTextRegion() located in JBIG2Stream.cc, can be triggered by sending a crafted pdf file to (for example) the pdfimages binary. It allows an attacker to cause Denial of Service (Segmentation fault) or possibly have unspecified other impact. This is related to JBIG2Bitmap::clearToZero.

Weakness: CWE-674 (Uncontrolled Recursion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-9545?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Freedesktop Poppler.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-9545?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2019-9545 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-9545 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Freedesktop Poppler

- [CVE-2018-21009](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-21009/): Integer overflow in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2019-12293](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-12293/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2019-10872](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-10872/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2019-9543](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-9543/): Denial of service in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2017-2820](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-2820/): Integer overflow in Poppler (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-9545 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-9545 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Freedesktop Poppler, published on 1 Mar 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-9545 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Freedesktop Poppler. 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-2019-9545/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-9545/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-9545
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-9545
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-9545

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-9545/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.