BREW-PSUTILS-CVE-2023-46250 (GHSA-WJCC-CQ79-P63F)
Vulnerability from osv_homebrew – Published: 2026-08-13 17:29 – Updated: 2026-09-10 00:58 – Source websiteImpact
An attacker who uses this vulnerability can craft a PDF which leads to an infinite loop. This infinite loop blocks the current process and can utilize a single core of the CPU by 100%. It does not affect memory usage.
That is, for example, the case when the pypdf-user manipulates an incoming malicious PDF e.g. by merging it with another PDF or by adding annotations.
Patches
The issue was fixed with #2264
Workarounds
If you cannot update your version of pypdf, you should modify pypdf/generic/_data_structures.py just like #2264 did.
{
"affected": [
{
"ecosystem_specific": {
"fix": "bump",
"range_state": "fixed",
"resource": "pypdf",
"resource_purl": "pkg:pypi/pypdf@6.17.0",
"upstream_fixed_in": "3.17.0"
},
"package": {
"ecosystem": "Homebrew",
"name": "psutils",
"purl": "pkg:brew/psutils"
},
"ranges": [
{
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "3.3.16_1"
}
],
"type": "ECOSYSTEM"
}
]
}
],
"database_specific": {
"confidence": "high",
"source": "matched",
"strategy": "registry",
"upstream_evidence": [
{
"ecosystem": "PyPI",
"key": "pkg:pypi/pypdf@6.17.0",
"name": "pypdf",
"resource": "pypdf",
"strategy": "registry",
"subject_version": "6.17.0"
}
]
},
"details": "### Impact\nAn attacker who uses this vulnerability can craft a PDF which leads to an infinite loop.\nThis infinite loop blocks the current process and can utilize a single core of the CPU by 100%. It does not affect memory usage.\n\nThat is, for example, the case when the pypdf-user manipulates an incoming malicious PDF e.g. by merging it with another PDF or by adding annotations.\n\n### Patches\nThe issue was fixed with #2264\n\n### Workarounds\nIf you cannot update your version of pypdf, you should modify `pypdf/generic/_data_structures.py` just like #2264 did.",
"id": "BREW-psutils-CVE-2023-46250",
"modified": "2026-09-10T00:58:53Z",
"published": "2026-08-13T17:29:24Z",
"references": [
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/py-pdf/pypdf/security/advisories/GHSA-wjcc-cq79-p63f"
},
{
"type": "ADVISORY",
"url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-46250"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/py-pdf/pypdf/pull/2264"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/py-pdf/pypdf/commit/9b23ac3c9619492570011d551d521690de9a3e2d"
},
{
"type": "PACKAGE",
"url": "https://github.com/py-pdf/pypdf"
}
],
"schema_version": "1.7.3",
"severity": [
{
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H",
"type": "CVSS_V3"
}
],
"summary": "Possible Infinite Loop when PdfWriter(clone_from) is used with a PDF",
"upstream": [
"GHSA-wjcc-cq79-p63f",
"CVE-2023-46250",
"PYSEC-2026-1834"
]
}
Sightings
| Author | Source | Type | Date | Other |
|---|
Nomenclature
- Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
- Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
- Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
- Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
- Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.
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