Bug 2458164 (CVE-2026-33929)

Summary: CVE-2026-33929 Apache PDFBox: Apache PDFBox: Arbitrary file write via path traversal in ExtractEmbeddedFiles example
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: asoldano, ataylor, bbaranow, bmaxwell, bstansbe, chfoley, dbruscin, dlofthou, fmariani, gmalinko, istudens, ivassile, iweiss, janstey, kvanderr, mosmerov, msvehla, nwallace, pberan, pdelbell, pesilva, pjindal, pmackay, rgodfrey, rstancel, rstepani, smaestri, swoodman, tcunning, thjenkin, vdosoudi, yfang
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in Apache PDFBox. A local user with writing rights to a specific directory could be exploited via a malicious PDF file when using the ExtractEmbeddedFiles example. This path traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability, which allows an attacker to access files and directories outside of the intended directory, enables arbitrary file write attempts.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-04-14 09:01:35 UTC
Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability in Apache PDFBox Examples.

This issue affects the 
ExtractEmbeddedFiles example in Apache PDFBox: from 2.0.24 through 2.0.36, from 3.0.0 through 3.0.7.


Users are recommended to update to version 2.0.37 or 3.0.8 once 
available. Until then, they should apply the fix provided in GitHub PR 
427.

The ExtractEmbeddedFiles example contained a path traversal vulnerability (CWE-22) mentioned in CVE-2026-23907. However the change in the releases 2.0.36 and 3.0.7 is flawed because it doesn't consider the file path separator. Because of that, a user having writing rights on /home/ABC could be victim to a malicious PDF resulting in a write attempt to any path starting with /home/ABC, e.g. "/home/ABCDEF".

Users who have copied this example into their production code should apply the mentioned change. The example 
has been changed accordingly and is available in the project repository.