CVE-2012-2142

HIGH 7.8CVE-2012-2142 · Published 09/01/2020 · updated 16/06/2026

In short

CVE-2012-2142 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.8) vulnerability affecting poppler (freedesktop), xpdf (xpdfreader).
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days (EPSS): 2.9%, higher than 87.1% of all vulnerabilities.
Fix: update to 0.21.4 or later.

Package	Affected versions	Patched versions
poppler freedesktop	`< 0.21.4`	`0.21.4`
xpdf xpdfreader	`= 3.02`	No fix yet

Description

The error function in Error.cc in poppler before 0.21.4 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via a PDF containing an escape sequence for a terminal emulator.

References

cgit.freedesktop.org/poppler/poppler/commit · Patch
cgit.freedesktop.org/poppler/poppler/commit/NEWS · Patch
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2013-08/msg00049.html · Mailing List
openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2013/08/09/5 · Exploit
openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2013/08/09/6 · Exploit
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi · Issue Tracking

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Package

Affected versions

Patched versions

poppler

freedesktop

< 0.21.4

0.21.4

xpdf

xpdfreader

= 3.02

No fix yet

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