Medium severity · published Apr 14, 2026
CVE-2026-33929
Apache PDFBox Examples: Path Traversal in PDFBox ExtractEmbeddedFiles Example Code
4.3
CVSS
0.7%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
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.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
None
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.7% · higher than 53% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
AP
Apache PDFBox Examples · Apache Software Foundation
2.0.24 through 2.0.36; 3.0.0 through 3.0.7 · source: vendor
PD
Pdfbox · Apache
2.0.24 before 2.0.37; 3.0.0 before 3.0.8 · source: NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-33929
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-33929
Patch
https://github.com/apache/pdfbox/pull/427/changes
Mailing List
https://lists.apache.org/thread/j8l07tgzy9dm8d8n0f3c45h7zg7t3ld6
Mailing List
https://lists.apache.org/thread/op3lyx1ngzy4qycn06l6hljyf28ff0zs
More from Apache PDFBox Examples
5.3
CVE-2026-23907
Apache PDFBox Examples: Path Traversal in PDFBox ExtractEmbeddedFiles Example Code
