fpdf2: Exponential SVG '<use>' expansion causes CPU and memory exhaustion in 'FPDF.image()'

CISA KEV is observed exploitation evidence. FIRST EPSS is a dated prediction of exploitation in the next 30 days. Missing scores are unknown. This collector requests predictions only for explicit CVE aliases in the public NuGet archive; Microsoft release views retain their existing prediction scope.

No collected risk observation for these identifiers. This does not establish absence of exploitation or a zero probability.

fpdf2 is a PDF creation library for Python. From 2.5.0 until 2.8.8, fpdf2's SVGObject.build_xref() passes nested SVG <use> references to GraphicsContext.add_item(), whose default clone=True deep-copy behavior copies the complete referenced graphics tree during FPDF.image() processing. Repeating references at each nesting level makes the in-memory object count and processing work grow exponentially, allowing a small user-controlled SVG to consume excessive CPU and memory, raise MemoryError, fail PDF generation jobs, and reduce or exhaust worker capacity. ResourceAccessPolicy does not prevent the issue because the references are inline and require no external resource, XML entity, local file, or permissive network setting. This issue is fixed in version 2.8.8.

Source published

22 Oct 2026 17:21:11 UTC

Source modified

29 Oct 2026 02:22:14 UTC

Observed here

29 Oct 2026 03:48:01 UTC

Source terms

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CVSS 3.1 · 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H