What is CVE-2018-18457?

CVE-2018-18457 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Xpdfreader Xpdf, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2018-10-18.

How severe is CVE-2018-18457?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.

Is CVE-2018-18457 known to be exploited?

2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

NULL pointer dereference in Xpdfreader Xpdf

CVE-2018-18457

The function DCTStream::readScan in Stream.cc in Xpdf 4.00 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference) via a crafted pdf file, as demonstrated by pdftoppm.

Published 2018-10-18 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.011 (65.4th percentile), scored 2026-10-01.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 65th percentile — 65.4% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.011 · newest: 0.011 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Xpdfreader Xpdf — versions 4.00

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-476 — NULL Pointer Dereference

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

forum.xpdfreader.com/viewtopic.php (Third Party Advisory)
github.com/TeamSeri0us/pocs/tree/master/xpdf/2018_10_16/pdftoppm (Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2018-18457?: CVE-2018-18457 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Xpdfreader Xpdf, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2018-10-18.
How severe is CVE-2018-18457?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2018-18457 known to be exploited?: 2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.