Hedgedoc
CVE-2021-29475
CRITICAL
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A05:2025 - Injection
ASVS 5.0
V1 - Encoding and Sanitization Code injection prevention, sandbox exec
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Execution, Initial Access The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Impact | CVSS score of 10.0 (CRITICAL). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A remote attacker could inject and execute arbitrary code within the application by sending crafted requests to the affected application. No authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability. |
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Alert meAnalysisAI
HedgeDoc (formerly known as CodiMD) is an open-source collaborative markdown editor. Rated critical severity (CVSS 10.0), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Code Injection vulnerability could allow attackers to inject and execute arbitrary code within the application.
RemediationAI
A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Never evaluate user-controlled input as code. Use sandboxing, disable dangerous functions, apply strict input validation.
Affects your stack
Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability is classified as Code Injection (CWE-94), which allows attackers to inject and execute arbitrary code within the application. HedgeDoc (formerly known as CodiMD) is an open-source collaborative markdown editor. An attacker is able to receive arbitrary files from the file system when exporting a note to PDF. Since the code injection has to take place as note content, there fore this exploit requires the attackers ability to modify a note. This will affect all instances, which have pdf export enabled. This issue has been fixed by https://github.com/hedgedoc/hedgedoc/commit/c1789474020a6d668d616464cb2da5e90e123f65 and is available in version 1.5.0. Starting the CodiMD/HedgeDoc instance with CMD_ALLOW_PDF_EXPORT=false or set "allowPDFExport": false in config.json can mitigate this issue for those who cannot upgrade. This exploit works because while PhantomJS doesn't actually render the file:/// references to the PDF file itself, it still uses them internally, and exfiltration is possible, and easy through JavaScript rendering. The impact is pretty bad, as the attacker is able to read the CodiMD/HedgeDoc config.json file as well any other files on the filesystem. Even though the suggested Docker deploy option doesn't have many interesting files itself, the config.json still often contains sensitive information, database credentials, and maybe OAuth secrets among other things. Affected products include: Hedgedoc. Version information: version 1.5.0..
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
DescriptionNVD
HedgeDoc (formerly known as CodiMD) is an open-source collaborative markdown editor. An attacker is able to receive arbitrary files from the file system when exporting a note to PDF. Since the code injection has to take place as note content, there fore this exploit requires the attackers ability to modify a note. This will affect all instances, which have pdf export enabled. This issue has been fixed by https://github.com/hedgedoc/hedgedoc/commit/c1789474020a6d668d616464cb2da5e90e123f65 and is available in version 1.5.0. Starting the CodiMD/HedgeDoc instance with CMD_ALLOW_PDF_EXPORT=false or set "allowPDFExport": false in config.json can mitigate this issue for those who cannot upgrade. This exploit works because while PhantomJS doesn't actually render the file:/// references to the PDF file itself, it still uses them internally, and exfiltration is possible, and easy through JavaScript rendering. The impact is pretty bad, as the attacker is able to read the CodiMD/HedgeDoc config.json file as well any other files on the filesystem. Even though the suggested Docker deploy option doesn't have many interesting files itself, the config.json still often contains sensitive information, database credentials, and maybe OAuth secrets among other things.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Code injection occurs when an application accepts user input and passes it directly into a language interpreter or evaluator without proper sanitization.
Remote Code Execution represents the critical moment when an attacker successfully runs arbitrary code on a target system without physical access.
Affected Products (CPE)NVD
HedgeDoc is a collaborative platform for writing and sharing markdown. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.7), this vulnerabilit
HedgeDoc is software for creating real-time collaborative markdown notes. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.2), this vulnerabi
HedgeDoc is an open source, real-time, collaborative, markdown notes application. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this
HedgeDoc is open source software which lets you create real-time collaborative markdown notes. Rated medium severity (CV
HedgeDoc (formerly known as CodiMD) is an open-source collaborative markdown editor. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.8), t
Denial of service in HedgeDoc before 1.11.0 lets a user who can store a note crash the instance by embedding a YAML "ali
HedgeDoc is a collaborative platform for writing and sharing markdown. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerabilit
Rate-limiting bypass in HedgeDoc prior to 1.11.0 permits unauthenticated remote attackers to circumvent brute-force prot
HedgeDoc's GitHub Gist export feature exposes private and protected note content to attacker-controlled GitHub accounts
HedgeDoc is an open source, real-time, collaborative, markdown notes application. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.4), this
HedgeDoc is a platform to write and share markdown. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.1), this vulnerability is remotely exp
HedgeDoc is a platform to write and share markdown. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.1), this vulnerability is remotely exp
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
GitHub
Exploit-DB