Medium severity · published Oct 10, 2025
CVE-2025-52885
GHSL-2025-042: Poppler has Use-After-Free
6.1
CVSS
0.2%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
Poppler ia a library for rendering PDF files, and examining or modifying their structure. A use-after-free (write) vulnerability has been detected in versions Poppler prior to 25.10.0 within the StructTreeRoot class. The issue arises from the use of raw pointers to elements of a `std::vector`, which can lead to dangling pointers when the vector is resized. The vulnerability stems from the way that refToParentMap stores references to `std::vector` elements using raw pointers. These pointers may become invalid when the vector is resized. This vulnerability is a common security problem involving the use of raw pointers to `std::vectors`. Internally, `std::vector `stores its elements in a dynamically allocated array. When the array reaches its capacity and a new element is added, the vector reallocates a larger block of memory and moves all the existing elements to the new location. At this point if any pointers to elements are stored before a resize occurs, they become dangling pointers once the reallocation happens. Version 25.10.0 contains a patch for the issue.
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.2% · higher than 7% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
PO
poppler · poppler
< 25.10.0 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-52885
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-52885
gitlab.freedesktop.org
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/poppler/poppler/-/merge_requests/1884
gitlab.freedesktop.org
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/poppler/poppler/-/merge_requests/1884#note_3114334
securitylab.github.com
https://securitylab.github.com/advisories/GHSL-2025-042_poppler/
www.openwall.com
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/10/13/2
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