Path traversal in pandoc - CVE-2023-35936
Published: July 4, 2023 / Updated: April 24, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU127460
CSH Severity: Medium
CVSS v4: 5.7 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2023-35936
CWE-ID: CWE-22
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a local user to create or overwrite arbitrary files on the system.
The vulnerability exists due to improper path restriction in media extraction handling when processing a specially crafted image element in untrusted input during PDF generation or when using the --extract-media option. A local user can supply crafted input with a percent-encoded path in a media URI to create or overwrite arbitrary files on the system.
User interaction is required to process untrusted input, and only configurations that generate PDF output or use the --extract-media option are affected.
Affected software
pandoc
How to mitigate CVE-2023-35936
Install security update from vendor's website.
pandoc - update to 3.1.4