CVE-2026-43893
exiftool-vendored: Argument injection via newline characters in tag names
- Published
- May 11, 2026
- Updated
- May 12, 2026
- Assigning CNA
- GitHub_M
- Evidence observed
- Aug 26, 2026
Primary CVSS
nvd · CVSS 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:NLow · next 30 days
- Percentile
- 40.7%
- Model date
- Sep 21, 2026
EPSS is a statistical estimate, not a certainty or a measure of impact. Combine it with CVSS, KEV status, exposure and your environment.
Summary
exiftool-vendored provides cross-platform Node.js access to ExifTool. Prior to 35.19.0, exiftool-vendored starts ExifTool in -stay_open True -@ - mode, where arguments are read from stdin one per line. In affected versions, several caller-supplied strings were interpolated into ExifTool arguments without rejecting line delimiters. A newline or carriage return inside one of those strings could split a single intended argument into multiple ExifTool arguments, allowing argument injection. The fix also rejects NUL bytes as unsafe control characters. Applications that pass attacker-controlled strings to affected APIs may allow an attacker to make ExifTool read files accessible to the ExifTool process, or write output to attacker-chosen file system paths accessible to that process. No remote code execution has been demonstrated. This vulnerability is fixed in 35.19.0.
Sources
1Proof-of-concept exploit for CVE-2026-43893, demonstrating the vulnerability and providing exploitation details.
Responsible use
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