CVE-2026-43893

exiftool-vendored: Argument injection via newline characters in tag names

HIGH
8.2
CVSS Score
Published: May 11, 2026 at 08:59 PM UTC
Updated: October 26, 2026 at 06:10 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorExiftool Vendored.js

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Severity
HIGH8.2
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.5%
SSVC
No known exploit

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.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 35.19.0
Affected range stops below 35.19.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

8.2HIGHGitHub_M
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
LOW
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusDEFERRED
CWE
CWE-88

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