Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2026-48735 is a denial-of-service issue in pypdf before 6.12.1. A specially crafted PDF with excessive XMP metadata can cause high memory use when parsed. This can disrupt services that process PDFs, but the provided sources do not show data theft, code execution, or active exploitation.
Executive priority
Treat this as a moderate availability risk. Prioritize patching systems that process externally supplied PDFs, because a single crafted document may consume enough memory to interrupt service.
Technical view
pypdf versions before 6.12.1 can exhaust RAM while parsing manipulated XMP metadata streams with many unnecessary elements. The issue is classified as CWE-770 and CVSS 4.0 score 6.9, with high vulnerable-system availability impact and no stated confidentiality or integrity impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely in applications or services using pypdf below 6.12.1 to parse PDFs, especially where PDFs are supplied by users, customers, partners, or automated ingestion workflows.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not report active exploitation, and KEV is false. Exploitation requires a crafted PDF being parsed by a vulnerable pypdf version. The documented impact is memory exhaustion, not code execution.
Researcher notes
Evidence identifies manipulated XMP metadata parsing as the trigger and pypdf <6.12.1 as affected. CVSS indicates local attack vector but no privileges, no user interaction, and high vulnerable-system availability impact. The bundle does not provide proof-of-concept details or confirmed exploitation.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade pypdf dependencies below 6.12.1 to 6.12.1 or later.
- Review the GitHub advisory and 6.12.1 release notes for vendor guidance.
- Prioritize untrusted PDF ingestion paths until dependency upgrades are complete.
- Apply operational resource limits to PDF-processing workloads where feasible.
Validation and detection
- Inspect dependency manifests, lockfiles, and SBOMs for pypdf versions below 6.12.1.
- Identify services that parse PDFs from untrusted or semi-trusted sources.
- Confirm deployed environments resolve to pypdf 6.12.1 or later.
- Check whether PDF-processing jobs have memory monitoring and alerting.
- Review incident logs for unexplained memory spikes during PDF parsing.
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-770: 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-2026-48735 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
- Medium
- CVSS
- 6.9 (4.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
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.
SSVC decision data
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N——GitHub_MVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 4.0 score
6.9MediumVector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://github.com/py-pdf/pypdf/security/advisories/GHSA-wjqc-6w8f-h24cCVE reference, GitHub_M · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/py-pdf/pypdf/pull/3796CVE reference, GitHub_M · x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/py-pdf/pypdf/releases/tag/6.12.1CVE reference, GitHub_M · 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.
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.