Deserialization in Pdfminer Pdfminer.six
CVE-2025-64512
Pdfminer.six is a community maintained fork of the original PDFMiner, a tool for extracting information from PDF documents. Prior to version 20251107, pdfminer.six will execute arbitrary code from a malicious pickle file if provided with a malicious PDF file. The `CMapDB._load_data()` function in pdfminer.six uses `pickle.loads()` to deserialize pickle files. These pickle files are supposed to be part of the pdfminer.six distribution stored in the `cmap/` directory, but a malicious PDF can specify an alternative directory and filename as long as the filename ends in `.pickle.gz`. A malicious, zipped pickle file can then contain code which will automatically execute when the PDF is processed. Version 20251107 fixes the issue.
Vulnerability class: Insecure Deserialization
EPSS: 0.003 (23.5th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 8.6 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H.
Affected products
- Pdfminer Pdfminer.six — versions < 20251107
- Debian Debian_linux — versions 11.0
Weakness classification (CWE)
Public proof-of-concept exploits
- luigigubello/CVE-2025-64512-Polyglot-PoC
- matesz44/CVE-2025-64512
- BardLaudian/CVE-2025-64512
- oguzylmzx/CVE-2025-64512-pdfminer-PoC
- DodgeNefoli/CVE-2025-64512
- saadhassan77/CVE-2025-64512---pdfminer.six-Remote-Code-Execution-RCE-
- stoic-crawler/CVE-2025-64512
- Cosm3No1de/Bedside.htb_solved
- MehdiChyhab/CVE-2025-64512-exploit
- joeack123/PoC-for-CVE-2025-64512
References
- security-advisories@github.com (x_refsource_CONFIRM, Exploit, Vendor Advisory)
- security-advisories@github.com (Patch, x_refsource_MISC)
- security-advisories@github.com (x_refsource_MISC, Release Notes)
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 (Mailing List)
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2025-64512?
- CVE-2025-64512 is a high-severity vulnerability in Pdfminer Pdfminer.six, classified under Deserialization of Untrusted Data. CVSS score: 8.6/10. Published 2025-11-10.
- How severe is CVE-2025-64512?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.6 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2025-64512 known to be exploited?
- 10 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.