# CVE-2025-43903: Security feature bypass in Poppler

> Attackers can forge digital signatures in PDF documents because the library fails to verify specific PKCS7 signatures, compromising document integrity.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 Apr 2025
- **Updated:** 21 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** CLSA-2026-1784038553, CLSA-2026-1784899428, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-43903, ECHO-9071-56c9-378a, GHSA-4w9g-4h2x-7qxq, JLSEC-2026-87, MGASA-2025-0143, OESA-2025-1476, OESA-2025-1477, OESA-2025-2520, OESA-2025-2521, OESA-2025-2522, SUSE-SU-2025:1434-1, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-43903, USN-7471-1

## What is CVE-2025-43903?

CVE-2025-43903 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Freedesktop Poppler, published on 18 Apr 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

NSSCryptoSignBackend.cc in Poppler before 25.04.0 does not verify the adbe.pkcs7.sha1 signatures on documents, resulting in potential signature forgeries.

Weakness: CWE-347 (Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-43903?

It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `poppler` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP6 | All versions | 24.03.0-150600.3.13.1 |
| `poppler` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Package Hub 15 SP6 | All versions | 24.03.0-150600.3.13.1 |
| `poppler-qt5` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Package Hub 15 SP6 | All versions | 24.03.0-150600.3.13.1 |
| `poppler-qt6` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Package Hub 15 SP6 | All versions | 24.03.0-150600.3.13.1 |
| `poppler` | openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | All versions | 24.03.0-150600.3.13.1 |
| `poppler-qt5` | openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | All versions | 24.03.0-150600.3.13.1 |
| `poppler-qt6` | openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | All versions | 24.03.0-150600.3.13.1 |

Products: Freedesktop Poppler.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-43903?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2025-43903 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-43903 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-2025-43903 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-43903 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Freedesktop Poppler, published on 18 Apr 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-43903 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-2025-43903/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-43903/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-43903
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-43903
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-43903

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-43903/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.