Vulnerability Database

400,669

Total vulnerabilities in the database

High severity vulnerability that affects indico — indico

Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in a Command ('Command Injection')

Local file disclosure through LaTeX injection

Impact

An external audit of the Indico codebase has discovered a vulnerability in Indico's LaTeX sanitization code, which could have malicious users to run unsafe LaTeX commands on the server. Such commands allowed for example to read local files (e.g. indico.conf).

As far as we know it is not possible to write files or execute code using this vulnerability.

Patches

You need to update to Indico 2.2.3 as soon as possible. We also released Indico 2.1.10 in case you cannot update to 2.2 for some reason. See https://docs.getindico.io/en/stable/installation/upgrade/ for instructions on how to update.

Workarounds

Setting XELATEX_PATH = None in indico.conf will result in an error when building a PDF, but without being able to run xelatex, the vulnerability cannot be abused.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

  • Published: Oct 11, 2019
  • Updated: Apr 14, 2023
  • GHSA: GHSA-67cx-rhhq-mfhq
  • Severity: High
  • Exploit:
  • CISA KEV:

No technical information available.

CWEs:

OWASP TOP 10:

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Frequently Asked Questions

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.