CVE-2026-33929Apache PDFBox Examples: Path Traversal in PDFBox ExtractEmbeddedFiles Example Code
- 4.3MediumCVSS base score
- 0.72%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 45% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
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.
Timeline
ID reserved
By apache
- 21 days later
· 21 days later
Published
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| CISA-ADPADP (enrichment) | 3.1 | Medium4.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | Medium4.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.72% · top 45% of all CVEs (14 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 4.3.
Affected products
Apache Software Foundation · Apache PDFBox Examples
- affected 2.0.24 – ≤ 2.0.36
- affected 3.0.0 – ≤ 3.0.7
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- Mavenorg.apache.pdfbox:pdfbox-examplesGHSA-gcj8-76p4-g2fq (opens in a new tab)
References
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2026-22229 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-gcj8-76p4-g2fq (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2026-33929)Record last updated .