exiftool-vendored vulnerable to argument injection via newline characters in tag names

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

8.2 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N

EPSS

• CVE-2026-43893: 0.48% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 41.80 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Impact exiftool-vendored starts ExifTool in -stayopen 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. The reported write-path issue is caused by unsanitized tag keys. Tag values passed to ExifTool#write are not affected, because WriteTask already encodes whitespace characters in values (e.g. \n - 
) before transmission. Confirmed affected…

Published by the source

5 May 2026, 19:53 UTC

Last modified by the source

13 May 2026, 14:34 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 12:52 UTC

1. Revision 2 · amended · 26 Oct 2026

   Amended from ghsa record GHSA-cw26-7653-2rp5

2. Revision 1 · created · 24 Oct 2026

   Published from osv record GHSA-cw26-7653-2rp5

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2026-43893

Advisory: exiftool-vendored vulnerable to argument injection via newline characters in tag names
IDs: CVE-2026-43893, GHSA-cw26-7653-2rp5
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2026-43893 (revision 2, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 12:52 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 8.2)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: exiftool-vendored 35.19.0. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- npm exiftool-vendored: affected <= 35.18.0; fixed in 35.19.0

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- `npm ls exiftool-vendored --all`: lists every installed copy and version, including transitive ones. Run in the project root after `npm ci`.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on exiftool-vendored.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-cw26-7653-2rp5 (OSV record GHSA-cw26-7653-2rp5 lists affected ranges: npm exiftool-vendored >=0 <35.19.0 (fixed))
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-cw26-7653-2rp5 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-cw26-7653-2rp5 lists affected ranges: npm exiftool-vendored >=0 <=35.18.0)

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