Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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ReconCraft malicious PDF with abnormal page structure
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DeliveryDeliver PDF to user (email/download)
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ExploitUser opens PDF in Foxit
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InstallLifecycle handler processes malicious structure
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C2Object references invalidate
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ExecuteSubsequent operation dereferences invalid memory
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ImpactApplication crash
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Memory lifecycle management
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Execution, Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | User interaction is required: the victim must deliberately open or load a malicious PDF document into Foxit PDF Editor or PDF Reader. Exploitation does not require authentication or special system privileges (PR:N). No specific Foxit configuration or feature enablement is documented as a prerequisite; the vulnerability affects default document processing in both products. Limitation: the attack is local (AV:L), so it cannot be triggered remotely without the attacker first delivering the malicious PDF to the target system via email, web download, file sharing, or removable media. The PDF must be opened in Foxit specifically; other PDF readers are not confirmed affected. |
| Impact | This vulnerability presents moderate real-world risk aligned with CVSS 5.5 scoring. Attack vector is local (AV:L) with low complexity (AC:L), unauthenticated access (PR:N), but requires user interaction (UI:R), significantly limiting attack surface compared to network-based threats. EPSS score data not provided, but the CVSS vector combination suggests exploitation is straightforward once a victim opens a malicious PDF. Denial-of-service impact (A:H, availability compromised) is real but non-critical in enterprise contexts unless targeting workstations performing critical PDF processing tasks. The use-after-free root cause (CWE-416) is a classic memory safety issue that could theoretically enable code execution if an attacker crafted the malicious PDF with sufficient precision to control heap layout, but the current CVE documentation reports only crashes, not RCE. No KEV listing or public POC identified, suggesting exploitation has not been observed in active attacks or security researcher publications. For organizations using Foxit products to process untrusted documents from external sources, this warrants prompt patching; for internal document workflows with trusted sources, risk is lower. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker crafts a malicious PDF file containing carefully constructed page elements and structural metadata that trigger abnormal page lifecycle events when opened. A user opens the PDF in Foxit PDF Editor or Reader; the page lifecycle handler processes the malicious structure, causing internal object references to become invalid while the application retains stale pointers. When the user attempts a subsequent action-such as scrolling, printing, or navigating to another page-the application dereferences the invalid memory object, triggering a crash and denial of service. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Apr 27, 2026
Use-after-free vulnerability in Foxit PDF Editor and PDF Reader allows local attackers to crash the application by manipulating document page lifecycle events, causing internal component states to desynchronize and subsequent operations to reference invalidated memory objects. Attack requires user interaction to open a malicious PDF file and does not enable information disclosure or code execution; impact is denial of service with CVSS 5.5 (medium severity). No public exploit code or active exploitation confirmed at time of analysis.
RemediationAI
Check Foxit's official security bulletins at https://www.foxit.com/support/security-bulletins.html for the specific patched version of Foxit PDF Editor and PDF Reader that addresses CVE-2026-5942, then upgrade both products to that patched release. Until patching is available or deployed, implement defense-in-depth controls: restrict opening of PDF files from untrusted sources (disable external document downloads in email clients, block PDF execution from web browsers in sandboxed environments), disable JavaScript execution within PDF documents if business requirements permit, and monitor for application crashes or unexpected terminations of Foxit processes as an indicator of exploitation attempts. If patching is delayed, consider running Foxit products within OS-level sandboxes (Windows Sandbox, macOS sandbox, or containers) to isolate crashes and prevent system-wide impact.
Affected VersionsENISA
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Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability stems from improper management of object lifecycles within the PDF document processing engine (CWE-416: Use After Free). When Foxit's page lifecycle handler processes structural changes to a PDF document-such as page reordering, deletion, or dynamic content updates-internal component state tracking fails to synchronize with the modified document structure. This desynchronization causes the application to maintain stale pointers or references to PDF objects that have been freed or invalidated. Subsequent operations, such as rendering, annotation processing, or form field handling, dereference these invalid references, triggering memory access violations and application crashes. The vulnerability affects both Foxit PDF Editor (full-featured desktop editor) and Foxit PDF Reader (document viewer), as both share common PDF parsing and lifecycle management libraries.
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Severity by source
AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Primary rating from Vendor (Foxit) · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorVendor: Foxit
DescriptionCVE.org
Flaws in page lifecycle management allow document structure changes to desynchronize internal component states, causing subsequent operations to access invalidated objects and crash the program.
Zero Day Initiative Advisories
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
Use-after-free vulnerabilities occur when a program continues to access memory through a pointer after that memory has been deallocated.
Memory corruption occurs when a program writes data beyond the boundaries of allocated memory regions or accesses memory in unintended ways, violating the integrity of the process's address space.
Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.
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EUVD-2026-25828
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
GitHub PoC
Exploit-DB