Medium severity · published Jul 5, 2023
CVE-2023-35936
Pandoc is a Haskell library for converting from one markup format to another, and a command-line tool that uses this library
5.0
CVSS
0.4%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
Pandoc is a Haskell library for converting from one markup format to another, and a command-line tool that uses this library. Starting in version 1.13 and prior to version 3.1.4, Pandoc is susceptible to an arbitrary file write vulnerability, which can be triggered by providing a specially crafted image element in the input when generating files using the `--extract-media` option or outputting to PDF format. This vulnerability allows an attacker to create or overwrite arbitrary files on the system ,depending on the privileges of the process running pandoc. It only affects systems that pass untrusted user input to pandoc and allow pandoc to be used to produce a PDF or with the `--extract-media` option.
The fix is to unescape the percent-encoding prior to checking that the resource is not above the working directory, and prior to extracting the extension. Some code for checking that the path is below the working directory was flawed in a similar way and has also been fixed. Note that the `--sandbox` option, which only affects IO done by readers and writers themselves, does not block this vulnerability. The vulnerability is patched in pandoc 3.1.4. As a workaround, audit the pandoc command and disallow PDF output and the `--extract-media` option.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
High
Privileges
Low
User interaction
Required
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
Low
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.4% · higher than 31% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
DL
Debian Linux · Debian
10.0 · source: NVD
PA
Pandoc · Pandoc
1.13 before 3.1.4 · source: NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-35936
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-35936
Exploit
https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/security/advisories/GHSA-xj5q-fv23-575g
Mailing List
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/07/msg00029.html
lists.fedoraproject.org
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/JGRJHU2FTSGTHHRTNDF7STEKLKKA25JN/
lists.fedoraproject.org
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/LYP3FKDS3KAYMQUZVVL73IUI4CWSKLKP/
lists.fedoraproject.org
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/QI6RBP6ZKVC2OOCV6SU2FUHPMAXDDJFU/
More from Debian Linux
10.0
CVE-2025-32433
Erlang/OTP SSH Vulnerable to Pre-Authentication RCE
10.0
CVE-2025-24201
Apple Multiple Products WebKit Out-of-Bounds Write Vulnerability
10.0
CVE-2021-44228
Apache Log4j2 JNDI features do not protect against attacker controlled LDAP and other JNDI related endpoints
10.0
CVE-2015-3306
ProFTPD Improper Access Control Vulnerability
9.8
CVE-2026-111497
Out-of-Bounds Write in Google Brotli Decoder
