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    CVE-2023-38745

    Pandoc before 3.1.6 allows arbitrary file write: this can be triggered by providing a crafted image element in the input when generating files via the --extract-media option or outputting to PDF format. This allows an attacker to create or overwrite arbitrary files, depending on the privileges of the process running Pandoc. It only affects systems that pass untrusted user input to Pandoc and allow Pandoc to be used to produce a PDF or with the --extract-media option. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2023-35936 (failure to properly account for double encoded path names).

    Published:Jul 25, 2023
    Last Modified:Nov 4, 2025
    EPS:Jul 25, 2023
    EPSS Score:0.00025
    CVSS Score:6.3

    Affected Products

    Vendor
    Debian
    Product
    Debian Linux
    Vendor
    Pandoc
    Product
    Pandoc

    Exploits

    No exploit reference

    Common Weakness Enumeration

    CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

    Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

    CAPEC-10 Buffer Overflow via Environment Variables
    CAPEC-101 Server Side Include (SSI) Injection
    CAPEC-104 Cross Zone Scripting
    CAPEC-108 Command Line Execution through SQL Injection
    CAPEC-109 Object Relational Mapping Injection
    CAPEC-110 SQL Injection through SOAP Parameter Tampering
    CAPEC-120 Double Encoding
    CAPEC-13 Subverting Environment Variable Values
    CAPEC-135 Format String Injection
    CAPEC-136 LDAP Injection
    CAPEC-14 Client-side Injection-induced Buffer Overflow
    CAPEC-153 Input Data Manipulation
    CAPEC-182 Flash Injection
    CAPEC-209 XSS Using MIME Type Mismatch
    CAPEC-22 Exploiting Trust in Client
    CAPEC-23 File Content Injection
    CAPEC-230 Serialized Data with Nested Payloads
    CAPEC-231 Oversized Serialized Data Payloads
    CAPEC-24 Filter Failure through Buffer Overflow
    CAPEC-250 XML Injection
    CAPEC-261 Fuzzing for garnering other adjacent user/sensitive data
    CAPEC-267 Leverage Alternate Encoding
    CAPEC-28 Fuzzing
    CAPEC-3 Using Leading 'Ghost' Character Sequences to Bypass Input Filters
    CAPEC-31 Accessing/Intercepting/Modifying HTTP Cookies
    CAPEC-42 MIME Conversion
    CAPEC-43 Exploiting Multiple Input Interpretation Layers
    CAPEC-45 Buffer Overflow via Symbolic Links
    CAPEC-46 Overflow Variables and Tags
    CAPEC-47 Buffer Overflow via Parameter Expansion
    CAPEC-473 Signature Spoof
    CAPEC-52 Embedding NULL Bytes
    CAPEC-53 Postfix, Null Terminate, and Backslash
    CAPEC-588 DOM-Based XSS
    CAPEC-63 Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
    CAPEC-64 Using Slashes and URL Encoding Combined to Bypass Validation Logic
    CAPEC-664 Server Side Request Forgery
    CAPEC-67 String Format Overflow in syslog()
    CAPEC-7 Blind SQL Injection
    CAPEC-71 Using Unicode Encoding to Bypass Validation Logic
    CAPEC-72 URL Encoding
    CAPEC-73 User-Controlled Filename
    CAPEC-78 Using Escaped Slashes in Alternate Encoding
    CAPEC-79 Using Slashes in Alternate Encoding
    CAPEC-8 Buffer Overflow in an API Call
    CAPEC-80 Using UTF-8 Encoding to Bypass Validation Logic
    CAPEC-81 Web Server Logs Tampering
    CAPEC-83 XPath Injection
    CAPEC-85 AJAX Footprinting
    CAPEC-88 OS Command Injection
    CAPEC-9 Buffer Overflow in Local Command-Line Utilities

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    References

    https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/commit/eddedbfc14916aa06fc01ff04b38aeb30ae2e625
    https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/compare/3.1.5...3.1.6
    https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/07/msg00029.html
    https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/JGRJHU2FTSGTHHRTNDF7STEKLKKA25JN/
    https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/LYP3FKDS3KAYMQUZVVL73IUI4CWSKLKP/
    https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/QI6RBP6ZKVC2OOCV6SU2FUHPMAXDDJFU/
    https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/commit/eddedbfc14916aa06fc01ff04b38aeb30ae2e625
    https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/compare/3.1.5...3.1.6
    https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/07/msg00029.html
    https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/JGRJHU2FTSGTHHRTNDF7STEKLKKA25JN/
    https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/LYP3FKDS3KAYMQUZVVL73IUI4CWSKLKP/
    https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/QI6RBP6ZKVC2OOCV6SU2FUHPMAXDDJFU/
    https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/LYP3FKDS3KAYMQUZVVL73IUI4CWSKLKP/
    https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/QI6RBP6ZKVC2OOCV6SU2FUHPMAXDDJFU/

    Common Vulnerability Scoring System

    Attack Vector
    Network
    Adjacent
    Local
    Physical
    Privileges Required
    None
    Low
    High
    User Interaction
    None
    Required
    Scope
    Unchanged
    Changed
    Confidentiality
    None
    Low
    High
    Integrity
    None
    Low
    High
    Availability
    None
    Low
    High