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Vulnerability record · CVE-2018-18688 · published 7 January 2021

CVE-2018-18688: Code-industry master pdf editor improper verification of cryptographic signature vulnerability

Code Industry · Master Pdf Editor

The Portable Document Format (PDF) specification does not provide any information regarding the concrete procedure of how to validate signatures. Consequently, an Incremental Saving vulnerability exists in multiple products. When an attacker uses the Incremental Saving feature to add pages or annotations, Body Updates are displayed to the user without any action by the signature-validation logic. This affects Foxit Reader before 9.4 and PhantomPDF before 8.3.9 and 9.x before 9.4. It also affects LibreOffice, Master PDF Editor, Nitro Pro, Nitro Reader, Nuance Power PDF Standard, PDF Editor 6 Pro, PDFelement6 Pro, PDF Studio Viewer 2018, PDF Studio Pro, Perfect PDF 10 Premium, and Perfect PDF Reader.

5.3 CVSS 3.1 Medium EPSS 1.1% · top 34.4% CWE-347 · Improper verification of cryptographic signature
5.3CVSS 3.1 base score, v2 5.0
1.1%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
13Affected product versions listed by NVD
8References
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

The Portable Document Format (PDF) specification does not provide any information regarding the concrete procedure of how to validate signatures. Consequently, an Incremental Saving vulnerability exists in multiple products. When an attacker uses the Incremental Saving feature to add pages or annotations, Body Updates are displayed to the user without any action by the signature-validation logic. This affects Foxit Reader before 9.4 and PhantomPDF before 8.3.9 and 9.x before 9.4. It also affects LibreOffice, Master PDF Editor, Nitro Pro, Nitro Reader, Nuance Power PDF Standard, PDF Editor 6 Pro, PDFelement6 Pro, PDF Studio Viewer 2018, PDF Studio Pro, Perfect PDF 10 Premium, and Perfect PDF Reader.

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

Affected products

13 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
https://pdf-insecurity.org/signature/evaluation_2018.html Third Party Advisory
https://pdf-insecurity.org/signature/signature.html Third Party Advisory
https://www.foxitsoftware.com/support/security-bulletins.php Vendor Advisory
https://www.pdfa.org/recently-identified-pdf-digital-signature-vulnerabilities/ Third Party Advisory
https://pdf-insecurity.org/signature/evaluation_2018.html Third Party Advisory
https://pdf-insecurity.org/signature/signature.html Third Party Advisory
https://www.foxitsoftware.com/support/security-bulletins.php Vendor Advisory
https://www.pdfa.org/recently-identified-pdf-digital-signature-vulnerabilities/ Third Party Advisory

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Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.

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Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2018-18688), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-10-02). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.