Pillow PDF append accepts malformed shared page-tree DAG causing resource exhaustion

MITRE NVD CVE.ORG JSON API

Summary

CVECVE-2026-96640
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerGitHub_M
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-10-21 21:20:32 UTC
Updated2026-10-21 21:20:32 UTC
DescriptionPillow is a Python imaging library. From 5.1.0 until 13.0.0, PdfParser.linearize_page_tree() in src/PIL/PdfParser.py treats a PDF /Pages graph as a tree without tracking duplicate indirect references. When Image.save(..., format="PDF", append=True) processes an attacker-controlled existing PDF whose /Kids arrays repeatedly reference the same child /Pages node, Pillow expands the shared subtree as distinct pages. A compact malformed PDF can therefore create exponentially many page references and consume disproportionate CPU before the append completes. This issue is fixed in version 13.0.0.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v4.0 8.2 HIGH from [email protected]

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Problem Types: CWE-400 | CWE-407 | CWE-400 CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption | CWE-407 CWE-407: Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
4.0[email protected]Secondary8.2HIGHCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/C...
4.0CNADECLARED8.2HIGHCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

CVSS v4.0 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Attack Requirements
Present
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Sub Conf.
None
Sub Integrity
None
Sub Availability
None

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Python-pillow Pillow affected >= 5.1.0, < 13.0.0 Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/security/advisories/GHSA-mrfp-p49p-3hf2 [email protected] github.com
github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/releases/tag/13.0.0 [email protected] github.com
github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/pull/10093 [email protected] github.com
github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/commit/6f0e7ee1f9c2fe227906f8a4b926e6622... [email protected] github.com
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