Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability in Apache PDFBox Examples.

This issue affects the
ExtractEmbeddedFiles example in Apache PDFBox: from 2.0.24 through 2.0.36, from 3.0.0 through 3.0.7.


Users are recommended to update to version 2.0.37 or 3.0.8 once
available. Until then, they should apply the fix provided in GitHub PR
427.

The ExtractEmbeddedFiles example contained a path traversal vulnerability (CWE-22) mentioned in CVE-2026-23907. However the change in the releases 2.0.36 and 3.0.7 is flawed because it doesn't consider the file path separator. Because of that, a user having writing rights on /home/ABC could be victim to a malicious PDF resulting in a write attempt to any path starting with /home/ABC, e.g. "/home/ABCDEF".

Users who have copied this example into their production code should apply the mentioned change. The example
has been changed accordingly and is available in the project repository.
Advisories
Source ID Title
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-gcj8-76p4-g2fq Apache PDFBox Examples: Path Traversal in PDFBox ExtractEmbeddedFiles Example Code
Fixes

Solution

No solution given by the vendor.


Workaround

No workaround given by the vendor.

History

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

threat_severity

Moderate


Tue, 14 Apr 2026 21:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


Tue, 14 Apr 2026 20:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 4.3, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N'}


Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Apache
Apache pdfbox Examples
Vendors & Products Apache
Apache pdfbox Examples

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 08:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability in Apache PDFBox Examples. This issue affects the ExtractEmbeddedFiles example in Apache PDFBox: from 2.0.24 through 2.0.36, from 3.0.0 through 3.0.7. Users are recommended to update to version 2.0.37 or 3.0.8 once available. Until then, they should apply the fix provided in GitHub PR 427. The ExtractEmbeddedFiles example contained a path traversal vulnerability (CWE-22) mentioned in CVE-2026-23907. However the change in the releases 2.0.36 and 3.0.7 is flawed because it doesn't consider the file path separator. Because of that, a user having writing rights on /home/ABC could be victim to a malicious PDF resulting in a write attempt to any path starting with /home/ABC, e.g. "/home/ABCDEF". Users who have copied this example into their production code should apply the mentioned change. The example has been changed accordingly and is available in the project repository.
Title Apache PDFBox Examples: Path Traversal in PDFBox ExtractEmbeddedFiles Example Code
Weaknesses CWE-22
References

Projects

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: apache

Published:

Updated: 2026-04-14T19:50:07.000Z

Reserved: 2026-03-24T17:06:35.279Z

Link: CVE-2026-33929

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-04-14T19:49:58.797Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Awaiting Analysis

Published: 2026-04-14T09:16:36.297

Modified: 2026-04-17T15:24:57.753

Link: CVE-2026-33929

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Moderate

Publid Date: 2026-04-14T08:09:39Z

Links: CVE-2026-33929 - Bugzilla

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-04-15T15:30:06Z

Weaknesses