# CVE-2023-34872: Denial of service in n/a

> A remote attacker can cause a crash in the Poppler library by providing a crafted PDF file, affecting applications that use this library for PDF rendering.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/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:** Yes
- **Published:** 31 Jul 2023
- **Updated:** 4 Nov 2025
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-34872, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-34872, GHSA-77j7-vm29-rwwv, JLSEC-2026-82, MGASA-2023-0348, ROOT-OS-ALPINE-318-CVE-2023-34872, SUSE-SU-2023:4291-1, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-34872

## What is CVE-2023-34872?

CVE-2023-34872 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Freedesktop Poppler, published on 31 Jul 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

A vulnerability in Outline.cc for Poppler prior to 23.06.0 allows a remote attacker to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) (crash) via a crafted PDF file in OutlineItem::open.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-34872?

It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `poppler` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP5 | All versions | 23.01.0-150500.3.5.2 |
| `poppler` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Package Hub 15 SP5 | All versions | 23.01.0-150500.3.5.2 |
| `poppler-qt5` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Package Hub 15 SP5 | All versions | 23.01.0-150500.3.5.1 |
| `poppler` | openSUSE:Leap 15.5 | All versions | 23.01.0-150500.3.5.2 |
| `poppler-qt5` | openSUSE:Leap 15.5 | All versions | 23.01.0-150500.3.5.1 |
| `poppler-qt6` | openSUSE:Leap 15.5 | All versions | 23.01.0-150500.3.5.1 |

Products: Freedesktop Poppler.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-34872?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2023-34872 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-34872 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-2019-9545](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-9545/): Denial of service in n/a (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-34872 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-34872 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Freedesktop Poppler, published on 31 Jul 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: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-34872 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-2023-34872/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-34872/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-34872
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-34872
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-34872

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-34872/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.