CVE-2026-43893
exiftool-vendored: Argument injection via newline characters in tag names
- State
- Published
- Severity
- 8.2 High
- Published
- May 11, 2026
- Updated
- May 12, 2026
- Reserved
- May 4, 2026
Description
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.
Scores
| CVSS | Score | Vector | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | 8.2 High | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N | GitHub_M |
Weaknesses
- CWE-88 Improper Neutralization of Argument Delimiters in a Command ('Argument Injection')
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
exiftool-vendored.jsphotostructure |
|
References
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