Medium severity · published Aug 12, 2026
CVE-2026-17431
PDF::WebKit versions through 1.2 for Perl allow OS command injection via a 2-arg open() of the output path in to_pdf and of stylesheet paths in _style_tag_for
6.1
CVSS
0.9%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
PDF::WebKit versions through 1.2 for Perl allow OS command injection via a 2-arg open() of the output path in to_pdf and of stylesheet paths in _style_tag_for.
to_pdf reads the generated PDF back from its path argument, and _style_tag_for reads each entry of the stylesheets list, by assigning the path to a local @ARGV and reading it with the diamond operator, which opens each @ARGV element with Perl's 2-arg open(). A value that begins or ends with a pipe ("| cmd", "cmd |") is run as a command rather than opened as a file, and one that begins with a redirect ("> path", ">> path") opens that path for write or append. to_file forwards its path argument to to_pdf and reaches the same read.
Any caller that forwards untrusted input as the output path or as a stylesheets entry can run a command under the process UID; with the "cmd |" form the command's output is returned in place of the PDF, and with the "> path" form the named file is truncated. Stylesheets may only be added to an HTML source, so a URL or file source exposes the output path alone.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
High
Availability
None
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.9% · higher than 61% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
PD
PDF::WebKit · MITHALDU
through 1.2 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-17431
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-17431
github.com
https://github.com/kingpong/perl-PDF-WebKit/issues/8
security.metacpan.org
https://security.metacpan.org/patches/P/PDF-WebKit/1.2/CVE-2026-17431-r1.patch
wkhtmltopdf.org
https://wkhtmltopdf.org/status.html
www.openwall.com
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/08/13/3
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