Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessReach document-processing endpoint
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DeliverySubmit crafted PDF or summarization text
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ExploitTrigger uncontrolled recursion or infinite loop
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ExecutionExhaust CPU/memory resources
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ImpactHost process hangs or terminates
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Recursion depth limits
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| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires that an application built on Telerik Document Processing Libraries (prior to 2026.3.1027) accept attacker-controlled input via one of two named paths: a crafted PDF document processed by RadPdfProcessing, or document text submitted to the AI document summarization and question-answering features. The attacker needs reachability to whatever endpoint ingests these documents; no authentication (PR:N) and no user interaction (UI:N) are required by the CVSS vector. The practical limiting factor is deployment-specific: the flaw is only reachable where the host application exposes PDF upload or AI summarization intake to untrusted users - installations that process only trusted internal documents are not realistically exposed. Impact is limited to denial of service (process hang or termination); there is no data disclosure or code execution. The only complete fix stated by the vendor is upgrading to version 2026.3.1027. |
| Impact | This is a genuine but moderate-priority availability issue, not a high-severity emergency. The CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N) reflects the worst case of a network-reachable, unauthenticated, low-complexity denial of service, with impact confined entirely to availability (C:N/I:N/A:H) - there is no confidentiality or integrity exposure. The vuln.today decision label is 'this_week' rather than act_now/emergency, which aligns with a DoS-only outcome. No EPSS score, CISA KEV listing, or public PoC/exploit reference is present in the supplied data, so there is no evidence of active exploitation or available exploit code; exploitation status is accordingly 'no public exploit identified at time of analysis.' The main caveat is that the AV:N rating assumes the vulnerable Telerik library is embedded in an application that accepts attacker-supplied PDFs or document text over the network (e.g. an upload or AI summarization endpoint); in deployments where the library only processes trusted internal documents, real-world reachability is much lower than the network vector implies. CWE-674 (uncontrolled recursion), plus the infinite-loop and resource-allocation classes named by the vendor, are consistent with the availability-only impact. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker submits a specially crafted PDF to an application that uses Telerik RadPdfProcessing, or supplies malicious document text to an AI summarization/question-answering endpoint built on the affected libraries. The malformed input triggers uncontrolled recursion, an infinite loop, or excessive resource allocation, causing the host process to hang or terminate and denying service to legitimate users. No public exploit code is identified in the available data, and no authentication or user interaction is required (PR:N/UI:N). |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 28, 2026
Denial of service in Progress Telerik Document Processing Libraries before 2026.3.1027 allows unauthenticated remote attackers to hang or terminate the host process by submitting a crafted PDF to RadPdfProcessing or crafted document text to the AI document summarization and question-answering features (CVSS 7.5, AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N, availability-only impact). The flaw is reachable only where an application built on the libraries exposes PDF upload or AI summarization intake to untrusted users; installations that process only trusted internal documents are not realistically exposed, and there is no data disclosure or code execution. No public exploit has been identified at time of analysis and the issue is not in CISA KEV; the vendor states that upgrading to version 2026.3.1027 is the only complete fix. This is a genuine but moderate-priority availability issue rather than a high-severity emergency.
RemediationAI
Upgrade Telerik Document Processing Libraries to version 2026.3.1027, which the vendor identifies as the only complete fix, and track the advisory at https://docs.telerik.com/devtools/document-processing/knowledge-base/kb-security-uncontrolled-resource-consumption-pdfprocessing-cve-2026-118036 for the exact package list. Where upgrading cannot be done immediately, reduce exposure by restricting PDF upload and AI summarization/question-answering endpoints to trusted or authenticated users (trade-off: removes the untrusted-facing use case that drives the risk, and may break legitimate public upload flows), enforcing document size, page-count and processing-time limits at the intake boundary (trade-off: large legitimate documents will be rejected), disabling the AI summarization and question-answering features if they are not required (trade-off: loss of functionality), and running RadPdfProcessing in an isolated worker process with memory/CPU caps and supervised restarts so that a hang or crash is contained rather than terminating the host application (trade-off: added latency, operational complexity and per-worker resource cost).
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
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Technical ContextAI · show details
The root cause class is CWE-674 (Uncontrolled Recursion), and the vendor advisory frames the same defect family as uncontrolled resource consumption: recursion depth, loop termination, algorithmic complexity and memory/CPU allocation are not adequately bounded while processing attacker-influenced documents. RadPdfProcessing parses PDF structure and content streams, so a maliciously structured document can drive the parser into deeply nested recursion or super-linear processing that exhausts stack, CPU or memory and takes down or freezes the hosting process. The second path runs through the AI document summarization and question-answering features, where document text supplied for summarization or Q&A reaches the same class of unbounded resource consumption. Beyond these two named intake paths, the sources do not describe the precise trigger conditions, payload shape, or which specific parsing routine recurses, so the exact mechanism remains unverified. The CPE cpe:2.3:a:progress_software:telerik_document_processing_libraries:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* marks the whole library family as affected below the fixed version, and because the libraries are embedded in custom .NET applications, real-world exposure depends entirely on how each host application wires up document intake. Per the CVSS vector the attack is network-reachable, low complexity, unauthenticated and requires no user interaction, but the impact is confined to availability (C:N/I:N/A:H).
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Unauthenticated attacker-supplied PDF or text processed remotely gives AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N; DoS-only impact sets C:N/I:N/A:H with unchanged scope.
Primary rating from Vendor (ProgressSoftware).
CVSS VectorVendor: ProgressSoftware
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
In Progress® Telerik® Document Processing Libraries prior to version 2026.3.1027, uncontrolled recursion, infinite loop, inefficient algorithmic complexity and resource allocation vulnerabilities in RadPdfProcessing and AI document summarization and question answering allow an unauthenticated attacker to terminate or hang the host process via a crafted PDF document or document text submitted for summarization or question answering.
Executive ViewAI
Progress Telerik Document Processing Libraries (before 2026.3.1027) contain an unauthenticated denial-of-service vulnerability that can hang or crash the host process via crafted PDFs or AI document inputs. Organizations using these libraries in applications that accept untrusted user uploads are at risk of service disruption, impacting availability of document processing and AI summarization features. Leadership should care because this could lead to operational downtime and customer-facing outages, though no data disclosure or code execution is involved.
No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis; implement input validation, rate limiting, and restrict untrusted uploads until version 2026.3.1027 is available.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.
In Progress® Telerik® Document Processing Libraries, versions prior to 2025 Q1 (2025.1.205), unzipping an archive can le
A crafted XLSX or XLS workbook, or a crafted formula inside one, can terminate or hang the host process that parses it w
Denial of service in Progress Telerik Document Processing Libraries before 2026.3.1027 allows an unauthenticated remote
RadPdfProcessing, the PDF component of Progress Telerik Document Processing Libraries before version 2026.3.1027, perfor
XML external entity injection in Progress Telerik Document Processing Libraries before 2026.3.1027 allows remote unauthe
Denial of service in Progress Telerik Document Processing's SpreadProcessing library (all versions prior to 2026.3.1006)
In Progress® Telerik® Document Processing Libraries, versions prior to 2025 Q1 (2025.1.205), using .NET Standard 2.0, th
Path traversal in Progress Telerik Document Processing Libraries before 2026.3.1027 allows an authenticated, low-privile
In Progress Telerik Document Processing Libraries, versions prior to 2024 Q4 (2024.4.1106), importing a document with un
EUVD-2026-112038
GHSA-cq22-54c7-84rx
NVD
CVE.org
Exploit-DB