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Vulnerability record · CVE-2018-18689 · published 7 January 2021

CVE-2018-18689: Avanquest expert pdf ultimate improper verification of cryptographic signature vulnerability

Avanquest · Expert Pdf Ultimate

The Portable Document Format (PDF) specification does not provide any information regarding the concrete procedure of how to validate signatures. Consequently, a Signature Wrapping vulnerability exists in multiple products. An attacker can use /ByteRange and xref manipulations that are not detected 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 eXpert PDF 12 Ultimate, Expert PDF Reader, Nitro Pro, Nitro Reader, PDF Architect 6, PDF Editor 6 Pro, PDF Experte 9 Ultimate, PDFelement6 Pro, PDF Studio Viewer 2018, PDF Studio Pro, PDF-XChange Editor and Viewer, Perfect PDF 10 Premium, Perfect PDF Reader, Soda PDF, and Soda PDF Desktop.

5.3 CVSS 3.1 Medium EPSS 3.7% · top 10.7% CWE-347 · Improper verification of cryptographic signature
5.3CVSS 3.1 base score, v2 5.0
3.7%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
17Affected 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, a Signature Wrapping vulnerability exists in multiple products. An attacker can use /ByteRange and xref manipulations that are not detected 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 eXpert PDF 12 Ultimate, Expert PDF Reader, Nitro Pro, Nitro Reader, PDF Architect 6, PDF Editor 6 Pro, PDF Experte 9 Ultimate, PDFelement6 Pro, PDF Studio Viewer 2018, PDF Studio Pro, PDF-XChange Editor and Viewer, Perfect PDF 10 Premium, Perfect PDF Reader, Soda PDF, and Soda PDF Desktop.

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

Affected products

17 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-2018-18689), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-26). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.