firecrawl / firecrawl/pdf-inspector
acroform field names and values are decoded as utf-8, mangling utf-16be text strings
- Dominant language
- Rust
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Description
form field names and values are decoded with `String::from_utf8_lossy`, but per PDF 32000-1 §7.9.2.2 a text string is UTF-16BE when it starts with a `FE FF` BOM and PDFDocEncoding otherwise. neither survives a utf-8 decode, so anything acrobat wrote comes back full of replacement chars and interleaved nulls.
hit this on the irs w-9, where all 27 field names are utf-16be. every one is mangled.
sites in `src/extractor/links.rs` (main @ 636ca1a5):
- 301, `/T` field name
- 374, `/V` string value
- 385, `/V` array member
lines 153 and 404 also call `from_utf8_lossy` but those are a `/URI` and a `Btn` name object, neither of which is a text string, so they look right to me as-is.
repro, dropped into the existing `mod tests` in links.rs:
```rust
fn utf16be(text: &str) -> Vec {
let mut b = vec![0xFE, 0xFF];
for u in text.encode_utf16() { b.extend_from_slice(&u.to_be_bytes()); }
b
}
#[test]
fn utf16be_field_name_and_value_decode() {
let mut doc = Document::new();
let widget = doc.add_object(dictionary! {
"Type" => "Annot", "Subtype" => "Widget", "FT" => "Tx",
"T" => Object::String(utf16be("Prénom"), lopdf::StringFormat::Literal),
"V" => Object::String(utf16be("Zoë"), lopdf::StringFormat::Literal),
"Rect" => vec![10.into(), 20.into(), 110.into(), 40.into()],
});
let page = doc.add_object(dictionary! { "Type" => "Page", "Annots" => vec![Object::Reference(widget)] });
let catalog = doc.add_object(dictionary! {
"Type" => "Catalog",
"AcroForm" => dictionary! { "Fields" => vec![Object::Reference(widget)] },
});
doc.trailer.set("Root", Object::Reference(catalog));
let items = extract_form_fields(&doc, &HashMap::from([(page, 1)]));
assert_eq!(items[0].text, "Prénom: Zoë");
}
```
gives:
```
left: "\u{fffd}\u{fffd}\0P\0r\0\u{fffd}\0n\0o\0m: \u{fffd}\u{fffd}\0Z\0o\0\u{fffd}"
right: "Prénom: Zoë"
```
the decoder is already in the tree and already used by `structure_tree.rs:1067` and `content_stream.rs:949`, links.rs just never calls it. `lopdf::decode_text_string` is probably the better of the two since it does real PDFDocEncoding rather than latin-1, which matters in the 0x80-0xA0 range (0xA0 is `€`, not nbsp).
happy to send a PR if useful, it's a three line change plus tests for both branches.
Contributor guide
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Research direction
Start in src/extractor/links.rs at the `/T` and `/V` handling sites around lines 301, 374, and 385, then review the existing text decoder uses in structure_tree.rs and content_stream.rs. Extend the existing links.rs tests with the provided UTF-16BE case and a PDFDocEncoding case; done means field names and values decode correctly without changing `/URI` or `Btn` handling.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- rust
- Domain
- backend
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Activity status
- Active
- Clarity
- Clearly specified
- Newbie friendliness
- 88/100