PDF /GoToR action argv injection enables single-click RCE via --gtk-module dlopen
41Vexday Risk Score
No sign of exploitation. It has a public proof of concept.
ssvc Attendcvss 8.4epss 0.5%
from disclosure to weapon0 days
Published on NVDJun 10
1st PoCMay 16
exploitation probability
0.5%top 58% of all CVEs
observed exploitation
nono source reports it
2 public exploit(s)
Atril Document Viewer is the default document reader of the MATE desktop environment for Linux. A single-click remote code execution vulnerability in versions prior to 1.26.3 and 1.28.4 allows an attacker to achieve arbitrary code execution as the user by tricking them into clicking a link inside a malicious PDF document. The PDF can be packaged as a polyglot file that is simultaneously a valid PDF and a valid ELF shared library, making the attack a single-file, single-click, configuration-independent RCE on stock atril installations. The root cause is `shell/ev-application.c:ev_spawn`, which builds a command line from attacker-controlled PDF link-destination fields without applying `g_shell_quote`. The cmdline is then handed to `g_app_info_create_from_commandline`, which shell-parses it back into argv — splitting any embedded `--gtk-module=PATH` into a separate argv element. GTK then `dlopen()`s the path during init, running any `__attribute__((constructor))` it finds. Versions 1.26.3 and 1.28.4 contain a patch for the issue. This is the same defect class as CVE-2023-51698 (CBT `--checkpoint-action` injection in `comics-document.c`, fixed in 1.6.2) but in a different code path (`shell/ev-application.c`) that the original patch did not touch.
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Affected products
mate-desktop · atrilpublic PoCs found — 2
githubgithub.com/N1et/CVE-2026-46529★ 13githubgithub.com/amnsecurity/CVE-2026-46529-Atril-PDF-RCE★ 1⚠ Public resources, to assess the exposure of systems you control or are authorized to test. Test only with authorization.
References
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:27819https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:28998https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:33169https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:33416https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:39115https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:41904https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:42692https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:43398https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:46467https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-46529https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2487669https://github.com/mate-desktop/atril/releases/tag/v1.26.3