CVE-2025-53000 – This vulnerability allows arbitrary code execut... (How to Fix)

Q: What is the severity of CVE-2025-53000?

CVE-2025-53000 has a CVSS score of 7.8 (HIGH). This vulnerability allows arbitrary code execution when converting Jupyter notebooks containing SVG output to PDF on Windows systems. Attackers can create a malicious inkscape.bat file that gets executed during the conversion process. Users running nbconvert versions up to 7.16.6 on Windows are affected.

📋 TL;DR

This vulnerability allows arbitrary code execution when converting Jupyter notebooks containing SVG output to PDF on Windows systems. Attackers can create a malicious inkscape.bat file that gets executed during the conversion process. Users running nbconvert versions up to 7.16.6 on Windows are affected.

💻 Affected Systems

Products:

jupyter nbconvert

Versions: Up to and including 7.16.6

Operating Systems: Windows

Default Config Vulnerable: ⚠️ Yes

Notes: Only affects PDF conversion with SVG content on Windows. Linux and macOS systems are not vulnerable.

📦 What is this software?

Nbconvert by Jupyter

View all CVEs affecting Nbconvert →

⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact

🔴

Worst Case

Full system compromise with attacker gaining complete control over the Windows system, potentially leading to data theft, ransomware deployment, or lateral movement within networks.

🟠

Likely Case

Local privilege escalation or execution of malicious payloads in the context of the user running nbconvert, potentially leading to data exfiltration or persistence mechanisms.

🟢

If Mitigated

No impact if proper controls prevent execution of untrusted notebooks or restrict file system access.

🌐 Internet-Facing: LOW - This requires local file system access and user interaction to trigger.

🏢 Internal Only: MEDIUM - Data scientists, researchers, and developers using Jupyter notebooks internally could be targeted through social engineering or malicious notebooks.

🎯 Exploit Status

Public PoC: ⚠️ Yes

Weaponized: LIKELY

Unauthenticated Exploit: ✅ No

Complexity: LOW

Exploitation requires the victim to run nbconvert on a malicious notebook from a directory containing the attacker-controlled inkscape.bat file.

🛠️ Fix & Mitigation

✅ Official Fix

Patch Version: None available

Vendor Advisory: No official vendor advisory at time of publication

Restart Required: No

Instructions:

No official patch available. Monitor Jupyter project updates for future fixes.

🔧 Temporary Workarounds

Avoid PDF conversion with SVG on Windows

windows

Do not convert notebooks containing SVG output to PDF on Windows systems until a fix is available.

Use alternative conversion formats

windows

Convert to HTML or other formats instead of PDF when SVG content is present.

jupyter nbconvert --to html notebook.ipynb

Run conversions in isolated environments

all

Use Docker containers or virtual machines with restricted file system access for nbconvert operations.

🧯 If You Can't Patch

Restrict nbconvert usage to trusted directories with strict file permissions
Implement application allowlisting to prevent execution of unauthorized batch files

🔍 How to Verify

Check if Vulnerable:

Check nbconvert version and verify you are running Windows: jupyter nbconvert --version

Check Version:

jupyter nbconvert --version

Verify Fix Applied:

No fix available to verify. Monitor for updates to nbconvert beyond version 7.16.6.

📡 Detection & Monitoring

Log Indicators:

Unexpected execution of inkscape.bat
PDF conversion failures with SVG content
Unusual process spawns from nbconvert

Network Indicators:

Outbound connections from nbconvert process to unexpected destinations

SIEM Query:

Process creation where parent process contains 'nbconvert' AND command line contains 'inkscape.bat'

📊 Metadata

CVE ID: CVE-2025-53000

CVSS v3 Score: 7.8 (HIGH)

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CWE: CWE-427

EPSS Score: 0.01% exploit probability (0.3th percentile)

Published: December 17, 2025

Last Updated: February 18, 2026

🔗 References

📤 Share & Export

📄 Export Markdown 📋 Export JSON

🔗 Related Vulnerabilities

If you're affected by CVE-2025-53000, you might also want to check these: