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Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2023-38745

MEDIUM · 6.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-07-25
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.1.6 or later.
See remediation →
66/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
No privileges Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
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).

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 10.0
PandocApplication
Affected:< 3.1.6

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 3.1.6 or later
Fixed in 3.1.6
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Pandoc 3.1.6 or later

  1. 1. Check current Pandoc version: pandoc --version
  2. 2. For Debian 10 (Buster): Check if Debian backports are available with the fixed version: apt-cache policy pandoc -t buster-backports
  3. 3. If backports not available, consider upgrading to Debian 11 (Bullseye) or 12 (Bookworm) which may have newer Pandoc packages
  4. 4. Alternative: Install Pandoc 3.1.6+ from source (https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/releases) or use Haskell Stack
  5. 5. Alternative: Use the official Pandoc installation script: curl -s https://get.haskellstack.org/ | sh && stack install pandoc --install-ghc
  6. 6. Verify the fix by running: pandoc --version (should show 3.1.6 or later)
  7. 7. If using --extract-media or PDF output with untrusted input, ensure the output directory is on a filesystem with appropriate permissions and consider running in a sandboxed environment
Caveat Major Pandoc upgrades may introduce breaking changes in document conversion behavior; test critical document workflows after upgrade

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,600. Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-38745 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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