CVE-2025-64512
Prior to version 20251107, pdfminer.six will execute arbitrary code from a malicious pickle file if provided with a malicious PDF file.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.31%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
Pdfminer.six is a community maintained fork of the original PDFMiner, a tool for extracting information from PDF documents. Prior to version 20251107, pdfminer.six will execute arbitrary code from a malicious pickle file if provided with a malicious PDF file. The `CMapDB._load_data()` function in pdfminer.six uses `pickle.loads()` to deserialize pickle files. These pickle files are supposed to be part of the pdfminer.six distribution stored in the `cmap/` directory, but a malicious PDF can specify an alternative directory and filename as long as the filename ends in `.pickle.gz`. A malicious, zipped pickle file can then contain code which will automatically execute when the PDF is processed. Version 20251107 fixes the issue.
- CVSS 3.1
- 7.8 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 0.31% probability · 24th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-502
- Affected
- pdfminer/pdfminer.six · debian/debian linux
- Source
- security-advisories@github.com
References
- https://github.com/pdfminer/pdfminer.six/commit/b808ee05dd7f0c8ea8ec34bdf394d40e63501086Patch
- https://github.com/pdfminer/pdfminer.six/releases/tag/20251107Release Notes
- https://github.com/pdfminer/pdfminer.six/security/advisories/GHSA-wf5f-4jwr-ppcpExploit, Vendor Advisory
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/11/msg00017.htmlMailing List
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2026/01/msg00005.html
- https://github.com/pdfminer/pdfminer.six/security/advisories/GHSA-wf5f-4jwr-ppcpExploit, Vendor Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.