CVE-2026-68523: Fulgur: Unbounded page slicing from attacker-controlled CSS height causes denial of service
fulgur converts untrusted HTML/CSS into PDF, commonly on a server that processes input supplied by many tenants. In versions prior to 0.19.0, a body-direct child whose CSS-resolved height greatly exceeds the page height was sliced into one fragment per page with no upper bound.
The height is taken directly from attacker-controlled HTML/CSS (height, vh units), so a few bytes such as:
html <div style="height:99999999px"></div>
forced on the order of 125,000 page fragments. The pagination code then allocates vec![Vec::new(); pagecount] and runs a per-page render loop, resulting in CPU and memory exhaustion. A non-finite height (one that resolves to +inf) additionally made the slicing loop's remaining -= lastsliceh decrement never terminate, causing an infinite loop.
An attacker able to submit HTML/CSS to a fulgur-based conversion service can trigger this with a trivially small payload, denying service to the host and any co-tenants.
Patches
Fixed in 0.19.0. A MAXPAGES cap bounds the slice loop — halting it even for a +inf height — and non-finite layout heights are sanitized so they can no longer drive the loop.
Workarounds
Upgrade to 0.19.0 or later. If upgrading is not immediately possible, validate or constrain untrusted CSS (in particular height / vh on body-level elements) before passing HTML to fulgur.
Attack Vector rationale
fulgur performs no network I/O of its own; it renders HTML/CSS handed to it by the embedding application. This advisory scores the crate independent of any specific adopting program, so per the CVSS v3.1 User Guide §3.7 (scoring library vulnerabilities related to incoming data) the Attack Vector is assessed as Network for the reasonable worst-case deployment — a network-facing service that renders untrusted, attacker-supplied HTML without user interaction. A concrete system that receives the HTML in one component and passes it to fulgur in a separate component may assess a lower environmental Attack Vector (Local, per §3.10).
References
- Fix: https://github.com/fulgur-rs/fulgur/pull/501
Other sources
fulgur converts untrusted HTML/CSS into PDF, commonly on a server that processes input supplied by many tenants. In versions prior to 0.19.0, a body-direct child whose CSS-resolved height greatly exceeds the page height was sliced into one fragment per page with no upper bound. This is fixed in 0.19.0. A MAXPAGES cap bounds the slice loop — halting it even for a +inf height — and non-finite layout heights are sanitized so they can no longer drive the loop. As a workaround, validate or constrain untrusted CSS (in particular height / vh on body-level elements) before passing HTML to fulgur.
— MITRE
Affected Software
Remediation
Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.
- Upgrade
Upgrade
rust/fulgurto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 0.19.0 - Upgrade
Upgrade
fulgurto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 0.19.0 - Configuration
If upgrading to 0.19.0 or later is not immediately possible, validate or constrain untrusted CSS before passing HTML to fulgur—specifically constrain `height`/`vh` on body-level elements to prevent attacker-controlled CSS from driving unbounded page slicing.
fulgur-based HTML/CSS to PDF conversion service validate_or_constrain_untrusted_CSS_height_vh_before_passing_to_fulgur = enabled
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is exposed to this denial-of-service issue?
Any fulgur-based service that accepts untrusted HTML or CSS is exposed, particularly shared or multi-tenant conversion services. An unauthenticated attacker can submit a small crafted document and exhaust CPU and memory on the host and its co-tenants.
What input is needed to trigger the issue?
The attacker needs the ability to submit HTML/CSS for conversion. A body-direct child with an extremely large resolved height, including a height set in pixels or vh units, can create excessive page fragments; a height resolving to +inf can cause an infinite loop.
Which versions are affected and what fixes the problem?
Versions prior to 0.19.0 are affected. Upgrading to 0.19.0 adds a MAX_PAGES bound to pagination and sanitizes non-finite layout heights.