Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
PoDoFo 0.9.7 has a recursion flaw that can exhaust the call stack and crash affected software. Business impact depends on where PoDoFo is used, especially in services that process PDFs from users or partners.
Executive priority
Treat as a targeted availability risk until vendor severity and fix status are confirmed. Prioritize systems that automatically process external PDFs because a crash could disrupt business workflows.
Technical view
CVE-2021-30471 is CWE-674 in PoDoFo 0.9.7. An uncontrolled recursive call in PdfNamesTree::AddToDictionary in src/podofo/doc/PdfNamesTree.cpp can lead to stack overflow. No CVSS, fixed version, or detailed exploit prerequisites are provided in the source bundle.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely limited to applications, services, or distributions using PoDoFo 0.9.7 directly or as a bundled PDF-processing dependency. Public-facing or automated PDF workflows deserve priority review.
Exploitation context
The provided sources do not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation. They describe a crash-class stack overflow condition, but not working exploit details, attack complexity, or required input conditions.
Researcher notes
Evidence is sparse: the CVE identifies the vulnerable function, version, CWE, and stack overflow outcome, but not patch status, exploitability, or affected downstream products. Avoid broad claims without vendor confirmation.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory systems and applications using PoDoFo 0.9.7.
- Check upstream, distribution, or vendor guidance for a corrected package.
- Restrict untrusted PDF processing where PoDoFo 0.9.7 is confirmed.
- Add operational monitoring for repeated PDF-processing crashes.
- Prioritize remediation for internet-facing or automated ingestion workflows.
Validation and detection
- Review SBOMs, package manifests, and build dependencies for PoDoFo 0.9.7.
- Confirm whether deployed binaries dynamically or statically link PoDoFo.
- Map services that process PDFs from users, email, APIs, or partners.
- Check crash logs for stack overflow symptoms in PDF-processing components.
- Track vendor advisories for fixed-version confirmation.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-674: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2021-30471 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1947441CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Uncontrolled Recursion
Uncontrolled Recursion represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.