CVE-2020-36024 Null dereference in n/a
Medium 5.5
Published
Updated
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-36024 and fix it if it is affected.
What it is: CVE-2020-36024 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Freedesktop Poppler, published on 11 Aug 2023. 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: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2020-36024 exists.
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-2020-36024/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-36024/index.md)
Remote attackers can cause a denial of service in the Poppler PDF library via a crafted PDF file triggering a null pointer dereference.
- 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
What is CVE-2020-36024?
CVE-2020-36024 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Freedesktop Poppler, published on 11 Aug 2023. 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
An issue was discovered in freedesktop poppler version 20.12.1, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (DoS) via crafted .pdf file to FoFiType1C::convertToType1 function.
Weakness: CWE-476
Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-36024?
It affects 1 product.
Linux distribution packages (33)
poppler AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-cpp AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-cpp-devel AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-devel AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-glib AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-glib-devel AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-glib-doc AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-qt5 AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-qt5-devel AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-utils AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-cpp-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-debugsource Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-glib Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-glib-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-qt5 Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-qt5-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-utils Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-utils-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-cpp Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::crb | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-cpp-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::crb | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-cpp-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::crb | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::crb | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-debugsource Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::crb | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::crb | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-glib-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::crb | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-glib-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::crb | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-glib-doc Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::crb | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-qt5-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::crb | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-qt5-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::crb | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler-utils-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::crb | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
poppler Rocky Linux:8 | All versions | 0:20.11.0-11.el8 |
Products include Freedesktop Poppler.
How do I fix CVE-2020-36024?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2020-36024 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2020-36024 exists.
Other vulnerabilities in Freedesktop Poppler
Sources
Also known as ALSA-2024:2979, DEBIAN-CVE-2020-36024, GHSA-4pj9-rq3x-vjw5, OESA-2025-2620, OESA-2025-2621, OESA-2025-2622 and 3 more.