AIKIDO-2026-73955

TL;DR

OCRmyPDF ships a misc/watcher.py helper that runs OCRmyPDF on files dropped into configurable input, output, and archive directories. When those processing folders overlap the installation's interpreter paths, virtual environment, plugins, or settings file and are writable by the users who submit files, a submitter can plant code or point the settings at a malicious plugin that the helper then loads and executes. This grants code execution with the privileges of the account running the watcher. The fix adds startup validation that refuses to run when data directories overlap code or writable settings, and stops the helper from following symlinks or processing non-regular files.