CVE-2018-20167

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 2.7% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2018-12-17 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-74

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.

Affected products

Enlightenment Terminology: before 1.3.1 — fixed in 1.3.1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Enlightenment Terminology 1.3.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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