Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2023-35936

medium Nessus Plugin ID 226529

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Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- Pandoc is a Haskell library for converting from one markup format to another, and a command-line tool that uses this library. Starting in version 1.13 and prior to version 3.1.4, Pandoc is susceptible to an arbitrary file write vulnerability, which can be triggered by providing a specially crafted image element in the input when generating files using the `--extract-media` option or outputting to PDF format. This vulnerability allows an attacker to create or overwrite arbitrary files on the system ,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. The fix is to unescape the percent-encoding prior to checking that the resource is not above the working directory, and prior to extracting the extension. Some code for checking that the path is below the working directory was flawed in a similar way and has also been fixed. Note that the `--sandbox` option, which only affects IO done by readers and writers themselves, does not block this vulnerability. The vulnerability is patched in pandoc 3.1.4. As a workaround, audit the pandoc command and disallow PDF output and the `--extract-media` option.
(CVE-2023-35936)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 226529

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2023_35936.nasl

Version: 1.2

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 3/5/2025

Updated: 8/18/2025

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.0

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Low

Base Score: 3.3

Temporal Score: 2.6

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2023-35936

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5

Temporal Score: 4.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:pandoc, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:pandoc, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:centos:centos:8, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:pandoc, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:25.04, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 7/5/2023

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2023-35936

Detections

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