Severe Confluence Server Crash Down On Word Document Import

While importing a particular word document into Confluence we faced repetitively a severe confluence server crash down, meaning that it is not operational and reachable anymore! We managed to isolate the content in the word document that produces the severe malfunction to be a particular image. Copying this image from a .docx file to a .doc file will produce the same error. However, modifying the bit pattern of this image slighty (e.g., by switching to another compression level) will solve the problem. Of course, this is a very unpleasant situation because if anybody tries to import another word document (with comparable "features") our server will crash down and the current work of many other users might be lost. Because we are seriously considering to upgrade our starter license to a 500 user license, this issue needs definitely to be solved in advance.

In parallel, due to the priority level we have already submitted a support request under the same summary.

Thank you very much in advance for a fast solution!

Steps to Reproduce

1. In Confluence 5.5.2, create a page and go to Tools > Import Word Doc
2. Import Testfall.docx, leaving all options as default
3. Observe that the Confluence process is terminated.
4. This is all that appears in the logs:

   2014-08-18 12:51:24,510 WARN [http-bio-10552-exec-7] [atlassian.confluence.cache.TransactionalCacheFactory] warning Transactional cache update outside transaction. All updates to this cache should be performed from a thread with a valid transaction context.
    -- referer: http://localhost:10552/confluence/pages/worddav/uploadimport.action?pageId=950274 | url: /confluence/rest/stp/1.0/license/status | userName: admin
   2014-08-18 12:51:30,781 WARN [http-bio-10552-exec-9] [com.benryan.webwork.WordImportAction] executeFileUpload Failed to delete uploaded file /home/denise/confluence/home/552home/temp/upload_bdfcea9b_ccf0_4f35_a28f_2e94ad861811_00000001.tmp
    -- url: /confluence/pages/worddav/importword.action | page: 950274 | userName: admin | referer: http://localhost:10552/confluence/pages/worddav/uploadimport.action?pageId=950274 | action: importword
   2014-08-18 12:51:31,276 WARN [http-bio-10552-exec-5] [atlassian.confluence.cache.TransactionalCacheFactory] warning Transactional cache update outside transaction. All updates to this cache should be performed from a thread with a valid transaction context.
    -- referer: http://localhost:10552/confluence/pages/worddav/importword.action | url: /confluence/rest/stp/1.0/license/status | userName: admin
   

5. Running strace on the process shows that it is killed by a seg fault:

   Process 4901 attached
   futex(0x7fe36b4269d0, FUTEX_WAIT, 4905, NULL <unfinished ...>
   +++ killed by SIGSEGV (core dumped) +++
   

Workaround

Save the image in another format and use that instead. I used .bmp for the attached testfall-working.doc, which imports successfully.