GNU Emacs up to 28.2 ruby-mode.el command injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in GNU Emacs up to 28.2. This issue affects some unknown processing of the file ruby-mode.el. This manipulation causes command injection. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2022-48338. The attack may be initiated remotely. There is no available exploit. Applying a patch is the recommended action to fix this issue.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in GNU Emacs up to 28.2 (Word Processing Software). It has been declared as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown code of the file ruby-mode.el. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a command injection vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-77. The product constructs all or part of a command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended command when it is sent to a downstream component. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

An issue was discovered in GNU Emacs through 28.2. In ruby-mode.el, the ruby-find-library-file function has a local command injection vulnerability. The ruby-find-library-file function is an interactive function, and bound to C-c C-f. Inside the function, the external command gem is called through shell-command-to-string, but the feature-name parameters are not escaped. Thus, malicious Ruby source files may cause commands to be executed.

The weakness was presented 02/21/2023. The advisory is shared at git.savannah.gnu.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2022-48338 since 02/20/2023. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1202 for this issue.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 242832 (NewStart CGSL MAIN 7.02 : emacs Multiple Vulnerabilities (NS-SA-2025-0115)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Applying a patch is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.savannah.gnu.org.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (242832). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

• Word Processing Software

Vendor

• GNU

Name

• Emacs

Version

• 28.0
• 28.1
• 28.2

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.gnu.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

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