Cyber Resilience

CVE-2020-21896

MediumPublic PoC

Published: 22 August 2023

Published
22 August 2023
Modified
03 November 2025
KEV Added
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Patch
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CVSS Score v3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0021 43.7th percentile
Risk Priority 11 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2020-21896 is a medium-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Artifex Mupdf. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, ranked at the 43.7th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

A Use After Free vulnerability in svg_dev_text_span_as_paths_defs function in source/fitz/svg-device.c in Artifex Software MuPDF 1.16.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via opening of a crafted PDF file.

CWE(s)
CWE-416

Related Threats

No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.

Affected Assets

artifex
mupdf
1.16.0

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

SI-16 Memory Protection
addresses: CWE-416

Use-after-free exploits that achieve arbitrary code execution are blocked or significantly hardened by non-executable pages and ASLR.

References