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CVE-2026-42589

Gotenberg: Unauthenticated RCE via ExifTool Metadata Key Injection

CVSS 9.8 CRITICALEPSS 2.9%CWE-78
Vexday Risk Score
63High priority
SSVC decision (CISA)
Attend
PoC available → attend closely
CVSS 9.8EPSS 2.9%KEV nãoPoC públicaNuclei simMetasploit Patch
Lifecycle
14 May 2026Published on NVD
30 May 2026Public PoC
Recommendation: Plan a near-term fix — a public PoC already exists.
Gotenberg is a Docker-powered stateless API for PDF files. Prior to 8.31.0, Gotenberg's /forms/pdfengines/metadata/write HTTP endpoint accepts a JSON metadata object and passes its keys directly to ExifTool via the go-exiftool library. No validation is performed on key characters. A \n embedded in a JSON key splits the ExifTool stdin stream into a new argument line, allowing an attacker to inject arbitrary ExifTool flags — including -if, which evaluates Perl expressions. This achieves unauthenticated OS command execution in a single HTTP request. The response is HTTP 200 with a valid PDF, making the attack transparent to basic monitoring. This vulnerability is fixed in 8.31.0.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Affected products
gotenberg · gotenberg
⚠ Public resources, to assess the exposure of systems you control or are authorized to test. Test only with authorization.

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