CVE-2026-43893 HIGH

CVE-2026-43893: exiftool-vendored: Argument injection via newline characters in tag names

Vendor Photostructure
Product exiftool-vendored.js
Weakness CWE-88
Published May 11, 2026
Last update May 12, 2026

CVSS base score

8.2/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction None
Confidentiality Low
Integrity High

CVSS vector

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

What the vulnerability does

01Description

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.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

May 11, 2026 CVE published
May 12, 2026 Record updated