CVE-2026-31826 pypdf: manipulated stream length values can exhaust RAM
An attacker can cause excessive memory consumption and denial of service by crafting a PDF with a manipulated stream length value.
- 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-2026-31826?
CVE-2026-31826 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Pypdf Project Pypdf, published on 10 Mar 2026. 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
pypdf is a free and open-source pure-python PDF library. Prior to 6.8.0, an attacker who uses this vulnerability can craft a PDF which leads to large memory usage. This requires parsing a content stream with a rather large /Length value, regardless of the actual data length inside the stream. This vulnerability is fixed in 6.8.0.
Weakness: CWE-770
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-31826?
3 open source packages ship an affected version, including pypdf. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
pypdf PyPI | All versions | 6.8.0 |
pypdf PyPI | All versions | 6.8.0 |
pypdf PyPI | All versions | 6.8.0 |
Linux distribution packages (2)
python-PyPDF2 openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 2.11.1-7.1 |
python-pypdf openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 6.8.0-1.1 |
Products include Pypdf Project Pypdf.
How do I fix CVE-2026-31826?
Upgrade pypdf to 6.8.0 or later.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2026-31826 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-31826 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Pypdf Project Pypdf
- CVE-2026-102993 pypdf: Possible large memory usage when retrieving Roman page labels
- CVE-2026-102994 pypdf: Possible long runtimes/large memory usage when parsing indirect objects
- CVE-2026-102995 pypdf: Possible large memory usage for large /ToUnicode streams (Follow-up 2)
- CVE-2026-102996 pypdf: Possible large memory usage when parsing font data
- CVE-2026-102997 pypdf: Possible long runtimes for partially malformed FlateDecode streams (Follow-up)
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-31826, ECHO-f52c-41b0-fd67, GHSA-hqmh-ppp3-xvm7, MINI-mp95-vmmp-fjg5, MINI-vcp2-mw39-cg6q, PYSEC-2026-3019 and 4 more.