CVE-2024-52286: Stirling-PDF is a locally hosted web application that allows you to perform various operations on PDF files.

Stirling-PDF is a locally hosted web application that allows you to perform various operations on PDF files.

Stirling-PDF is a locally hosted web application that allows you to perform various operations on PDF files. In affected versions the Merge functionality takes untrusted user input (file name) and uses it directly in the creation of HTML pages allowing any unauthenticated to execute JavaScript code in the context of the user. The issue stems to the code starting at `Line 24` in `src/main/resources/static/js/merge.js`. The file name is directly being input into InnerHTML with no sanitization on the file name, allowing a malicious user to be able to upload files with names containing HTML tags. As HTML tags can include JavaScript code, this can be used to execute JavaScript code in the context of the user. This is a self-injection style attack and relies on a user uploading the malicious file themselves and it impact only them, not other users. A user might be social engineered into running this to launch a phishing attack. Nevertheless, this breaks the expected security restrictions in place by the application. This issue has been addressed in version 0.32.0 and all users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Description from the National Vulnerability Database, published by GitHub

What it means for a small business

If your business uses Stirling-PDF, install the vendor's update. If you're not sure whether you use it, ask whoever manages your computers.

How likely is an attack? The Exploit Prediction Scoring System, run by FIRST (the global association of security response teams), puts the odds of this one being exploited in the next 30 days at 0.54%, higher than 45% of CVEs. That’s low, but low isn’t zero, and the odds jump the day someone publishes an exploit. Scored October 29, 2026, updated daily.

Check your own setup

Website check: reads what your site runs from the outside (WordPress version, plugins it can see, old server software) and matches it against this database.
Server check: what your web server says about itself, and whether that version has known flaws.

Sources

Part of the Huttenlocher Technologies vulnerability database, refreshed twice a day from CISA and the NVD. The title, category and plain-language guidance are ours; check the linked record before acting on a detail. This is general guidance, not a review of your systems.

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