Critical Vulnerabilities Exposed in Popular PDF Platforms: Account Takeover and Data Theft Risks
PDF Platforms Vulnerabilities Uncovered
A recent analysis of popular PDF platforms has uncovered over a dozen vulnerabilities in products from Foxit and Apryse, highlighting the potential for account takeover, data exfiltration, and other malicious activities.
Vulnerabilities Identified by Novee
The vulnerabilities were identified by researchers at Novee, a penetration testing startup that emerged from stealth mode in January 2026 with significant funding. The findings were responsibly disclosed to both Foxit and Apryse, and patches have been issued for the affected products.
Affected Products and Vulnerabilities
The research focused on Apryse WebViewer and Foxit PDF cloud services, which are widely used for viewing, editing, and managing PDF documents. Apryse WebViewer is a JavaScript-based document SDK and UI component library, while Foxit PDF cloud services provide a range of features for PDF document management.
The analysis, which utilized specialized AI agents, revealed 16 vulnerabilities across the two products. These included critical and high-severity issues, such as DOM XSS, SSRF, stored and reflected XSS, path traversal, and OS command injection vulnerabilities.
According to Novee, the vulnerabilities could have been exploited by attackers using specially crafted documents, URLs, or messages to execute arbitrary code or commands. In some cases, a single request could have been sufficient to compromise the system.
Consequences and Response
The researchers demonstrated that an attacker could have leveraged the XSS flaws to take over user accounts, exfiltrate sensitive data, manipulate documents, or achieve persistent compromise. The vulnerabilities also posed a risk to trusted domains commonly embedded in enterprise applications.
In response to the findings, Foxit and Apryse have issued patches and updates to address the vulnerabilities. Hongtao Huang, Group SDE, Product Security at Foxit, emphasized the company’s commitment to product security and responsible disclosure. Stan Kornacki, Vice President of IT and CISO at Apryse, noted that the issues were addressed promptly and thoroughly, and that the company’s vulnerability management processes are designed to ensure high-quality code and minimize potential data impact.
Conclusion
The discovery of these vulnerabilities highlights the importance of rigorous security testing and responsible disclosure in the software development process. It also underscores the need for organizations to stay vigilant and proactive in protecting their systems and data from potential threats.
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