CVE-2025-26525: Arbitrary file read risk through pdfTeX

Severity: high (CVSS 8.6 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2025-02-24 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-552

Description

Insufficient sanitizing in the TeX notation filter resulted in an arbitrary file read risk on sites where pdfTeX is available (such as those with TeX Live installed).

Affected products

Moodle: from 4.1.0 before 4.1.16; from 4.3.0 before 4.3.10; from 4.4.0 before 4.4.6; from 4.5.0 before 4.5.2 — fixed in 4.1.16, 4.3.10, 4.4.6, 4.5.2

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Moodle 4.1.16, 4.3.10, 4.4.6, 4.5.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git&a=search&h=HEAD&st=commit&s=MDL-84136
https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=466141

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