Fortinet Discovers Xpdf Pdftohtml Use After Free Vulnerability

Summary

Fortinet's FortiGuard Labs has discovered a memory corruption vulnerability in Xpdf Pdftohtml.

Pdftohtml is a free tool within the Xpdf toolkit. It can be used to convert Portable Document Format (PDF) files to HTML so that they can be viewed in a web browser.

A memory corruption vulnerability has been discovered in Xpdf Pdftohtml. The vulnerability exists because Pdftohtml can't correctly parse a crafted PDF file which causes a Use-After-Free. It could allow malicious users to create code execution scenarios.

Solutions

FortiGuard Labs released the following FortiGate IPS signature which covers this specific vulnerability:

Xpdf.Use.After.Free
Released Dec 01, 2015

Users should apply the latest Xpdf version provided by FooLabs.

Timeline

Fortinet reported the vulnerability to FooLabs on December 01, 2015.

Acknowledgement

This vulnerability was discovered by Kushal Shah of Fortinet's FortiGuard Labs.

IPS Subscription

Fortinet customers who subscribe to Fortinet's intrusion prevention (IPS) service should be protected against this vulnerability with the appropriate configuration parameters in place. Fortinet's IPS service is one component of FortiGuard Subscription Services, which also offer comprehensive solutions such as antivirus, Web content filtering and antispam capabilities. These services enable protection against threats on both application and network layers. FortiGuard Services are continuously updated by FortiGuard Labs, which enables Fortinet to deliver a combination of multi-layered security intelligence and true zero-day protection from new and emerging threats. These updates are delivered to all FortiGate, FortiMail and FortiClient products. Fortinet strictly follows responsible disclosure guidelines to ensure optimum protection during a threat's lifecycle.