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Advisory severityMedium5.5Red Hat Linux

Medium [CVE-2026-54531] Denial of Service via crafted PDF with outlines

This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-54531.

Aggregated and source-linked by VulniPulse. Data sources, validation and limitations.

CVE-2026-54531 Source published Source updated

VulniPulse record published Record updated

CVE-2026-54531
Affected products & platforms
Red Hat LinuxUnclassified
Open source advisory

Summary

pypdf is a free and open-source pure-python PDF library. Prior to 6.13.0, an attacker who uses this vulnerability can craft a PDF which leads to an infinite loop.

This requires merging a file with outlines into a writer. This vulnerability is fixed in 6.13.0.

A flaw was found in pypdf (before 6.13.0). A crafted PDF with outlines can trigger an infinite loop when merged into a PdfWriter, causing denial of service.

An attacker who can supply such a document for merge processing may hang the application indefinitely. Red Hat exposure mirrors other pypdf consumers: Python services that merge or rewrite PDFs using the library in Quay, observability, and hybrid platform containers.

Red Hat severity: Moderate — CVSS 5.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H). Weakness: CWE-835.

Red Hat lists Exploit Intelligence; OpenShift Lightspeed; Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2; Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI (RHEL AI) 3; Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI); Red Hat Quay 3 as not affected.

Is CVE-2026-54531 exploited?

No exploitation is reported in the sources VulniPulse tracks: CVE-2026-54531 is not in the CISA KEV catalog (checked ) and this advisory does not report exploitation. That is not proof the vulnerability cannot be exploited.

How do I fix CVE-2026-54531?

Upgrade to a fixed release named by Red Hat:

  • 6.13.0

Confirm against the vendor advisory before you patch.

Affected versions
  • < 6.13.0

Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 14 days ago·verify at source

Fixed versions
  • 6.13.0

Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 14 days ago·verify at source

Mitigation

Upgrade to a fixed release: 6.13.0. That is the remediation for this advisory.

The vendor advisory may list interim mitigations or workarounds not captured here. Review it before change work.

Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 14 days ago·verify at source

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