Skip to content
OpenAdvisories
High · 7.5 Public exploit CVE-2023-32309 EUVD-2023-1568GHSA-jh85-wwv9-24hvPYSEC-2026-1824

Arbitrary file inclusion with the pymdowm-snippets extension

Published May 15, 2023 · Updated Jan 22, 2025 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

PyMdown Extensions is a set of extensions for the `Python-Markdown` markdown project. In affected versions an arbitrary file read is possible when using include file syntax. By using the syntax `--8<--"/etc/passwd"` or `--8<--"/proc/self/environ"` the content of these files will be rendered in the generated documentation. Additionally, a path relative to a specified, allowed base path can also be used to render the content of a file outside the specified base paths: `--8<-- "../../../../etc/passwd"`. Within the Snippets extension, there exists a `base_path` option but the implementation is vulnerable to Directory Traversal. The vulnerable section exists in `get_snippet_path(self, path)` lines 155 to 174 in snippets.py. Any readable file on the host where the plugin is executing may have its content exposed. This can impact any use of Snippets that exposes the use of Snippets to external users. It is never recommended to use Snippets to process user-facing, dynamic content. It is designed to process known content on the backend under the control of the host, but if someone were to accidentally enable it for user-facing content, undesired information could be exposed. This issue has been addressed in version 10.0. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade may restrict relative paths by filtering input.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
facelessuser pymdown-extensions >= 1.5, < 10.0 —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 pymdown-extensions 10.8.1-1 —
Debian 13 pymdown-extensions 10.8.1-1 —
Debian 12 pymdown-extensions No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS pymdown-extensions No fix yet —

Public exploits

Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.

Third-party code, not reviewed by us. Public PoCs are sometimes fake or contain malware. Read the code first and run it only in an isolated lab, against systems you are authorised to test.

GitHub 1 repository

Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
PyPI pymdown-extensions >= 1.5, < 10.0 10.0 GHSA-jh85-wwv9-24hv

References