---
id: CVE-2026-38970
title: >-
  pdfcpu through v0.11.1 contains an uncontrolled-recursion denial-of-service
  issue in pkg/pdfcpu/model/parse.go
summary: >-
  pdfcpu through v0.11.1 contains an uncontrolled-recursion denial-of-service
  issue in pkg/pdfcpu/model/parse.go. The parser descends recursively through
  nested PDF objects, including arrays, via ParseObjectContext() and
  parseArray() witho…
severity: high
cvss: 7.5
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'
cwe:
  - CWE-674
published: '2026-07-02'
updated: '2026-08-21'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-38970'
references:
  - url: 'https://github.com/pdfcpu/pdfcpu'
    label: cve@mitre.org
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/pdfcpu/pdfcpu/blob/a181c19acb322d6b93a1bbda9385a864a9ad6efe/pkg/pdfcpu/model/parse.go#L325-L366
    label: cve@mitre.org
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/pdfcpu/pdfcpu/blob/a181c19acb322d6b93a1bbda9385a864a9ad6efe/pkg/pdfcpu/model/parse.go#L942-L970
    label: cve@mitre.org
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/pdfcpu/pdfcpu/commit/9db810afb52b555ffcae955b32c0be3a73eb53d3
    label: cve@mitre.org
  - url: 'https://github.com/pdfcpu/pdfcpu/releases/tag/v0.12.0'
    label: cve@mitre.org
tags:
  - nvd
epss: 0.0063
epssPercentile: 0.47964
ingestedAt: '2026-08-22T13:32:35.453Z'
---

## Overview

pdfcpu through v0.11.1 contains an uncontrolled-recursion denial-of-service issue in pkg/pdfcpu/model/parse.go. The parser descends recursively through nested PDF objects, including arrays, via ParseObjectContext() and parseArray() without enforcing a maximum nesting depth.

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.