CVE-2026-40281
Gotenberg vulnerable to argument injection via newlines in ExifTool metadata values
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.
- Affected
- gotenberg
- CVSS v3.1 NVD
- 9.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H - CVSS v3.1 GITHUB
- 10.0 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:H - EPSS
- 2.09% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, 81st percentile
- Nuclei
- critical · CWE-88
- Published
- 2026-05-06
- Updated
- 2026-05-07
Proof-of-concept exploits (5)
- advisories/GHSA-q7r4-hc83-hf2q
- 0xgh057r3c0n/CVE-2026-402810★ · 2026-10-01
- MRdark-ops/CVE-2026-40281-exploit3★ · 2026-10-04
- HackfutSecRoot/-GOTENBERG-RCE-CHAIN2★ · 2026-10-03
- rabakuku/CVE-2026-402810★ · 2026-10-05
Nuclei templates (1)
Vulhub environments (1)
Security advisories
- gotenberg/gotenberg/security/advisories/GHSA-q7r4-hc83-hf2q
- gotenberg/gotenberg/commit/405f1069c026bb08f319fb5a44e5c67c33208318