CVE-2026-42590 PUBLISHED

Gotenberg: ExifTool group-prefix syntax bypasses dangerous-tag blocklist

Assigner: GitHub_M
Reserved: 29.04.2026 Published: 14.05.2026 Updated: 14.05.2026

Gotenberg is a Docker-powered stateless API for PDF files. Prior to 8.30.0, The ExifTool metadata write blocklist in Gotenberg can be bypassed using ExifTool's group-prefix syntax, enabling arbitrary file rename, move, hardlink, and symlink creation on the server. ExifTool supports group-prefix syntax where File:FileName is processed identically to FileName -- the prefix is stripped by SetNewValue in Writer.pl before tag matching. The safeKeyPattern regex (^[a-zA-Z0-9-_.:]+$) allows colons, so prefixed tag names pass validation. Any prefix works: File:FileName, System:Directory, a:HardLink, etc. Additionally, FilePermissions, FileUserID, and FileGroupID pseudo-tags are not blocked at all and can modify file attributes without any prefix. This vulnerability is fixed in 8.30.0.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L
CVSS Score: 8.2

Product Status

Vendor gotenberg
Product gotenberg
Versions
  • Version < 8.30.0 is affected

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-184: Incomplete List of Disallowed Inputs CWE