Vulnerability Analysis
Gotenberg vulnerable to argument injection via newlines in ExifTool metadata values
CVE-2026-40281
Gotenberg is a Docker-powered stateless API for PDF files. In versions 8.30.1 and earlier, the metadata write endpoint validates metadata keys for control characters but leaves metadata values unsanitized. A newline character in a metadata value splits the ExifTool stdin line into two separate arguments, allowing injection of arbitrary ExifTool pseudo-tags such as -FileName, -Directory, -SymLink, and -HardLink. This is a bypass of the incomplete key-sanitization fix introduced in v8.30.1. An unauthenticated attacker can rename or move any PDF being processed to an arbitrary path in the container filesystem, overwrite arbitrary files, or create symlinks and hard links at arbitrary paths.
No Active Exploit Signals
CVSS Base Score
10.0
CRITICAL
Exploitability:3.9
Impact Score:5.8
Temporal Score:-
EPSS:0.61%
Threat Intelligence Signals
CISA KEV
No
KEV Date Added
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Ransomware Use
—
KEV Due Date
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VulnCheck In-the-Wild
No
Nuclei Template
No
EPSS Score
0.611%
EPSS Percentile
44.6th pct
GHSA ID
GitHub Severity
CRITICAL
SSVC Exploitation
—
SSVC Automatable
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Vulnerability Class
—
Identity & Timeline
| Status | - |
| Assigning Authority | - |
| CVSS Version / Source | - |
| Reserved | - |
| Published | - |
| Patch Date (date_public) | - |
| Exploit DB Date | - |
| First GitHub PoC Date | - |
| Last Updated | - |
| Time to Patch (Days to fix) | - |
| Exploit Release Gap | - |
| PoC Release Gap | - |
| Exploit DB References | None identified |
Affected Products & Versions
| Vendor | Product | Affected Versions |
|---|---|---|
| No affected products specified. | ||
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