Lite XL up to 2.1.8 Project File code injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as problematic has been found in Lite XL up to 2.1.8. Impacted is an unknown function of the component Project File Handler. The manipulation leads to Remote Privilege Escalation. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2025-12120. The attack can be initiated remotely. There is not any exploit available. To fix this issue, it is recommended to deploy a patch.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Lite XL up to 2.1.8 and classified as problematic. This issue affects some unknown processing of the component Project File Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a remote privilege escalation vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-94. The product constructs all or part of a code segment using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the syntax or behavior of the intended code segment. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Lite XL versions 2.1.8 and prior automatically execute the .lite_project.lua file when opening a project directory, without prompting the user for confirmation. The .lite_project.lua file is intended for project-specific configuration but can contain executable Lua logic. This behavior could allow execution of untrusted Lua code if a user opens a malicious project, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the Lite XL process.

It is possible to read the advisory at kb.cert.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-12120. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1059 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

Applying a patch is able to eliminate this problem.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at EUVD (EUVD-2025-198295). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Name

• Lite XL

Version

• 2.1.0
• 2.1.1
• 2.1.2
• 2.1.3
• 2.1.4
• 2.1.5
• 2.1.6
• 2.1.7
• 2.1.8

CPE 2.3info

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• 🔒
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CPE 2.2info

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Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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