CVE-2018-20167 Command injection in n/a

High 7.8 Published 17 Dec 2018 Updated 5 Aug 2024

An attacker can achieve remote code execution by tricking a user into viewing a file containing a malicious popmedia control sequence in Terminology.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: A user has to click or open something
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2018-20167?

CVE-2018-20167 is a high-severity command injection vulnerability in n/a, published on 17 Dec 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

Official description

Terminology before 1.3.1 allows Remote Code Execution because popmedia is mishandled, as demonstrated by an unsafe "cat README.md" command when \e}pn is used. A popmedia control sequence can allow the malicious execution of executable file formats registered in the X desktop share MIME types (/usr/share/applications). The control sequence defers unknown file types to the handle_unknown_media() function, which executes xdg-open against the filename specified in the sequence. The use of xdg-open for all unknown file types allows executable file formats with a registered shared MIME type to be executed. An attacker can achieve remote code execution by introducing an executable file and a plain text file containing the control sequence through a fake software project (e.g., in Git or a tarball). When the control sequence is rendered (such as with cat), the executable file will be run.

Weakness: CWE-74

Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-20167?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Enlightenment Terminology.

How do I fix CVE-2018-20167?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

Upgrade, and pass arguments to programs as a list instead of through a shell. More about Command injection.

Is CVE-2018-20167 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-20167 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2018-20167, GHSA-mcg2-gcq9-c6xf, MGASA-2019-0031, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-20167.