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Poppler < 25.10.0 Use-After-Free (GHSL-2025-042)

high Nessus Plugin ID 270703

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Synopsis

The remote host is missing a security update.

Description

The version of Poppler installed on the remote host is prior to 25.10.0. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability:

 - Poppler ia a library for rendering PDF files, and examining or modifying their structure. A use-after-free (write) vulnerability has been detected in versions Poppler prior to 25.10.0 within the StructTreeRoot class. The issue arises from the use of raw pointers to elements of a std::vector, which can lead to dangling pointers when the vector is resized. The vulnerability stems from the way that refToParentMap stores references to std::vector elements using raw pointers. These pointers may become invalid when the vector is resized. This vulnerability is a common security problem involving the use of raw pointers to std::vectors. Internally, std::vector stores its elements in a dynamically allocated array. When the array reaches its capacity and a new element is added, the vector reallocates a larger block of memory and moves all the existing elements to the new location. At this point if any pointers to elements are stored before a resize occurs, they become dangling pointers once the reallocation happens. Version 25.10.0 contains a patch for the issue. (CVE-2025-52885)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Upgrade to Poppler version 25.10.0 or later

See Also

https://securitylab.github.com/advisories/GHSL-2025-042_poppler/

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 270703

File Name: macos_poppler_25_10_0.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: macosx

Published: 10/17/2025

Updated: 10/17/2025

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.2

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2025-52885

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.4

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/a:freedesktop:poppler

Required KB Items: installed_sw/poppler

Patch Publication Date: 10/10/2025

Vulnerability Publication Date: 10/10/2025

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2025-52885

IAVB: 2025-B-0172