CVE-2026-40281CWE-88

Gotenberg vulnerable to argument injection via newlines in ExifTool metadata values

Critical · published May 6, 2026

CVSS v3.1
10.0
EPSS
2%
Percentile
81.5
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

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.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
10.0 · CRITICAL
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:H
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.02094 · 81.5th percentile
Weakness
CWE-88 · Improper Neutralization of Argument Delimiters in a Command ('Argument Injection')
Published
2026-05-06T20:46Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 06 MAY 20:46Z
    Gotenberg vulnerable to argument injection via newlines in ExifTool metadata values
    cvelistv5