CVE-2025-14405VulnerabilityPublished 23 Dec 2025Updated 30 Dec 2025

CVE-2025-14405: PDFsam Enhanced · Uncontrolled Search Path Element

Affects PDFsam EnhancedSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.6 Medium.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.0 base score

6.6Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 25% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

Attack Vector: Physical
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Physical: The attack requires the attacker to physically touch or manipulate the vulnerable component. Physical interaction may be brief or persistent.
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 23 Dec 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-25.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
PDFsam Enhanced	Affected =7.0.76.15222	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

1. Restrict physical access to systems running PDFsam Enhanced to trusted personnel only, employing badge access, surveillance, and secure storage for devices. 2. Implement strict policies to prevent unauthorized mounting of external drives or media on critical systems, using endpoint security tools to block or alert on such actions. 3. Monitor system logs and file system changes for unexpected loading of configuration files or unusual OpenSSL activity. 4. Once available, promptly apply vendor patches or updates addressing CVE-2025-14405 to eliminate the vulnerability. 5. Consider application whitelisting to prevent execution of unauthorized binaries or scripts loaded via manipulated configuration files. 6. Educate staff about the risks of physical access attacks and enforce clean desk policies to reduce insider threat vectors. 7. Use disk encryption and secure boot mechanisms to reduce the risk of unauthorized drive mounting and code execution. 8. Conduct regular security audits and penetration testing focusing on physical security and local privilege escalation vectors. These targeted mitigations go beyond generic advice by focusing on the physical access requirement and the specific attack vector involving OpenSSL configuration loading.

Description

PDFsam Enhanced Uncontrolled Search Path Element Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows phyiscally-present attackers to escalate privileges on affected installations of PDFsam Enhanced. An attacker must first obtain the ability to mount a malicious drive onto the target system in order to exploit this vulnerability. The specific flaw exists within the configuration of OpenSSL. The product loads an OpenSSL configuration file from an unsecured location. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM. Was ZDI-CAN-27867.

Impact

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk in environments where PDFsam Enhanced is deployed on workstations or servers with physical access by multiple users or in less controlled environments. Successful exploitation can lead to full SYSTEM-level compromise, enabling attackers to steal sensitive information, manipulate documents, or disrupt business operations. Sectors such as government, finance, legal, and critical infrastructure that rely on PDFsam Enhanced for document processing are particularly at risk. The requirement for physical access limits the threat to insider attackers or scenarios where physical security is weak, such as shared office spaces or public terminals. However, the high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability means that even limited exploitation can have severe consequences, including data breaches, regulatory non-compliance, and operational downtime. The medium CVSS score reflects the balance between the attack complexity and potential damage. Organizations in Europe must consider this vulnerability in their risk assessments, especially where physical security controls are less stringent or where PDFsam Enhanced is widely used.

CWE-427Uncontrolled Search Path Element (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessOWASP Top 10 A08:2025: Software or Data Integrity Failures (opens in a new tab)
The product uses a fixed or controlled search path to find resources, but one or more locations in that path can be under the control of unintended actors.
Architecture and Design · Implementation · Attack Surface Reduction
Hard-code the search path to a set of known-safe values (such as system directories), or only allow them to be specified by the administrator in a configuration file. Do not allow these settings to be modified by an external party. Be careful to avoid related weaknesses such as CWE-426 and CWE-428.
Implementation · Attack Surface Reduction
When invoking other programs, specify those programs using fully-qualified pathnames. While this is an effective approach, code that uses fully-qualified pathnames might not be portable to other systems that do not use the same pathnames.
Implementation · Attack Surface Reduction
Remove or restrict all environment settings before invoking other programs. This includes the PATH environment variable, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, and other settings that identify the location of code libraries, and any application-specific search paths.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Software Supply Chain Security (opens in a new tab)
Infrastructure as Code (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Leveraging/Manipulating Configuration File Search Paths (opens in a new tab)
Search Order Hijacking (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-25-1093/ (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 30 Dec 2025, 23:57 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-427

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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