{"id":"CVE-2026-54080","aliases":["GHSA-jrmc-qg6p-94fp"],"title":"veraPDF Parser DoS via PostScript CMap Streams","summary":"veraPDF Parser DoS via PostScript CMap Streams","severity":"medium","cwe":["CWE-1325"],"vendor":"verapdf","product":"org.verapdf:parser","ecosystem":"maven","affected":["org.verapdf:parser <= 1.30.1","org.verapdf:parser >= 1.31.1, <= 1.31.22"],"patched":["org.verapdf:parser 1.30.2","org.verapdf:parser 1.31.23"],"published":"2026-07-29","updated":"2026-07-29","source":"GHSA","sourceUrl":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-jrmc-qg6p-94fp","references":[{"url":"https://github.com/veraPDF/veraPDF-parser/security/advisories/GHSA-jrmc-qg6p-94fp"},{"url":"https://github.com/veraPDF/veraPDF-parser/pull/703"},{"url":"https://github.com/veraPDF/veraPDF-parser/commit/73d6ec002b98ce1f3f68640442f8e5d5613c80ce"},{"url":"https://github.com/veraPDF/veraPDF-parser/commit/cb3538607a549d63504299be1088c85ae48605f4"},{"url":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-jrmc-qg6p-94fp"}],"tags":["ghsa","maven"],"ingestedAt":"2026-07-29T15:48:25.971Z","epss":0.00302,"epssPercentile":0.23093,"slug":"CVE-2026-54080","body":"## Overview\n\n## Summary\n\n**Description**\n\nA PostScript-interpreter-driven Denial of Service (CWE-1325) vulnerability in veraPDF allows a remote attacker to exhaust validator memory or CPU by submitting a PDF whose Type 0 font `/Encoding` (or any `/ToUnicode`) is a CMap stream containing attacker-supplied PostScript. veraPDF reuses its CMap parser as a general PostScript interpreter and exposes the unguarded `array N` allocation operator and the `for` control operator with no zero-increment guard. This affects all current versions of veraPDF-parser.\n\n## Details\n\nThe vulnerability resides in veraPDF-parser. CMap streams referenced as a Type 0 font's `/Encoding` (or any font's `/ToUnicode`) are parsed by `CMapParser` (veraPDF-parser/src/main/java/org/verapdf/pd/font/cmap/CMapParser.java), which extends `PSParser`. Tokens that are not the small CMap-specific keyword set (`begincodespacerange`, `bfchar`, `cidchar`, ...) fall through to `PSObject.execute` (veraPDF-parser/src/main/java/org/verapdf/parser/postscript/PSObject.java), which dispatches generic PostScript operators implemented in `PSOperator` (veraPDF-parser/src/main/java/org/verapdf/parser/postscript/PSOperator.java).\n\nTwo operators in that interpreter take their bound from the PDF and apply no validation:\n1. `array` at PSOperator.java:536-547 pops the top number from the operand stack and immediately calls `COSArray.construct(arraySize)`, then loops `arraySize` times appending `COSObject.getEmpty()`. `COSArray.construct(int)` calls `new ArrayList<>(arraySize)` (COSArray.java:102), so the underlying `Object[]` is allocated up-front. Passing `2147483647` (`Integer.MAX_VALUE`) requests a 16 GB backing array on a 64-bit JVM.\n2. `for` at PSOperator.java:571-592 reads `initial`, `increment`, and `limit` from the stack and loops `for (long i = initial; i <= limit; i += increment)`. Because `increment` is unchecked, `0 0 1 { } for` produces an infinite-CPU spin (and progressively a heap exhaustion as each iteration pushes `i` onto the operand stack).\n\n`CMapFactory.getCMap` only catches `IOException` and `PostScriptException`; it does not catch `OutOfMemoryError` or wall-clock budget, so the failure propagates out of font model construction and aborts the validation worker.\n\nA single payload byte sequence, the unframed PostScript `2147483647 array`, is sufficient. No `begincmap`/`endcmap` framing is required because the operator runs before the parser ever reaches the CMap structure.\n\n## Impact\n\nThis impacts all current releases of the veraPDF-parser. Successful exploitation requires only that the target validate an attacker-supplied PDF; a single Type 0 font with a malicious `/Encoding` (or any `/ToUnicode`) stream is sufficient.\n\n## Proposed Patch\n\nCap `array` allocation and forbid zero increments in `for`.\n\nAs a defensive measure, also wrap `CMapFactory.getCMap` to enforce a wall-clock and operand-stack-size budget on CMap parsing, and audit the remaining unbounded operators (`copy`, `roll`, `dict`) for similar primitives.\n\n## Affected packages\n\n- `org.verapdf:parser <= 1.30.1`\n- `org.verapdf:parser >= 1.31.1, <= 1.31.22`\n\n## Remediation\n\nUpgrade to a patched release:\n\n- `org.verapdf:parser 1.30.2`\n- `org.verapdf:parser 1.31.23`","depth":"sunlit","depthScore":28,"depthScoreParts":{"impact":27.5,"likelihood":0.1,"exploitation":0,"ransomware":0},"changes":[]}