CVE-2016-4991

CRITICALNVD 9.89.8—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 9.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: CRITICAL) published 2022-07-29. NVD baseline CVSS 9.8; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
9.8
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS: 1%CVSS: 9.8Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

Input passed to the Pdf() function is shell escaped and passed to child_process.exec() during PDF rendering. However, the shell escape does not properly encode all special characters, namely, semicolon and curly braces. This can be abused to achieve command execution. This problem affects nodepdf 1.3.0.

CVSS v3
9.8
EG Score
9.8(medium)
EPSS
70.1%
KEV
Not listed

Published

July 28, 2022

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

Advisory Details (1)

Auto-updated May 25, 2026
No patch confirmed yet.
generic

CVE-2016-4991: Command injection in NodePDF | Anthony Weems

https://lf.lc/cve/cve-2016-4991/

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 8× in last 7d / 38× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

  1. 2026-07-11 08:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-09 19:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-08 15:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-06 16:24 UTCEPSS rescore
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  8. 2026-07-05 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-07-04 06:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-01 15:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-06-30 23:19 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-06-28 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-06-28 04:53 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-06-27 03:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-06-27 03:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-21 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
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  24. 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
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  1. 2026-06-19 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
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  3. 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-06-17 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-06-17 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-06-15 17:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-06-14 23:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-06-13 22:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-06-13 22:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-06-12 23:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-06-12 23:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-06-11 13:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-06-10 22:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-06-10 13:18 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-06-08 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-06-07 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-07 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-05 22:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-04 13:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-06-04 13:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-06-02 20:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-06-01 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-06-01 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-05-31 22:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-05-31 22:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-05-31 00:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-05-29 13:41 UTCEPSS rescore
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  35. 2026-05-27 13:38 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-05-27 13:38 UTCEPSS rescore
  37. 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  38. 2026-05-26 07:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  39. 2026-05-25 18:05 UTCEG score recompute
  40. 2026-05-25 18:05 UTCGHSA enrichment
  41. 2026-05-24 16:43 UTCEPSS rescore

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Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2016-4991?
CVE-2016-4991 is a critical vulnerability published on July 28, 2022. Input passed to the Pdf() function is shell escaped and passed to child_process.exec() during PDF rendering. However, the shell escape does not properly encode all special characters, namely, semicolon and curly braces. This can be abused to achieve command execution. This problem affects nodepdf…
When was CVE-2016-4991 disclosed?
CVE-2016-4991 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on July 28, 2022, with the most recent update on November 21, 2024. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2016-4991 actively exploited?
CVE-2016-4991 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 70.1% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2016-4991?
CVE-2016-4991 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2016-4991?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2016-4991, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

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