CVE-2026-59938 pypdf: Possible large memory usage for wrong image dimensions

Medium 6.9 Published Updated

An attacker can cause excessive memory consumption in pypdf by crafting a PDF with misleadingly large image dimensions, leading to denial of service.

Exploited in the wild
Not known
Login needed
Not needed
Attackable
Over the internet
Victim action needed
Not needed
Fix
Available

What is CVE-2026-59938?

CVE-2026-59938 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Pypdf Project Pypdf, published on 8 Jul 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

pypdf is a free and open-source pure-python PDF library. Prior to 6.14.0, an attacker can craft a PDF with declared image size values that are much too large compared to the actual data, causing large memory usage in pypdf image parsing. This issue is fixed in version 6.14.0.

Weakness: CWE-789

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-59938?

3 open source packages ship an affected version, including pypdf. It affects 1 product.

PackageAffectedFixed in
pypdf PyPIAll versions6.14.0
pypdf PyPIAll versions6.14.0
pypdf PyPIAll versions6.14.0

Products include Pypdf Project Pypdf.

How do I fix CVE-2026-59938?

Upgrade pypdf to 6.14.0 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-2026-59938 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-59938 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Pypdf Project Pypdf vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as CLEANSTART-2026-YO66191, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-59938, ECHO-6652-da99-9f06, GHSA-5qjq-93h5-hrgp, MINI-6m7c-x4j8-q7gm, MINI-f49v-3w93-856q and 9 more.

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