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module

Malicious XDG Desktop File

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Disclosed
Feb 6, 2007
Created
Aug 4, 2025

Description

This module creates a malicious XDG Desktop (.desktop) file.

On most modern systems, desktop files are not trusted by default.
The user will receive a warning prompt that the file is not trusted
when running the file, but may choose to run the file anyway.

The default file manager applications in some desktop environments
may impose more strict execution requirements by prompting the user
to set the file as executable and/or marking the file as trusted
before the file can be executed.

Author

bcoles [email protected]

Platform

FreeBSD,Linux,Solaris,Unix

Architectures

cmd

References

Module Options

To display the available options, load the module within the Metasploit console and run the commands 'show options' or 'show advanced':


    msf > use exploit/multi/fileformat/xdg_desktop
    msf exploit(xdg_desktop) > show targets
        ...targets...
    msf exploit(xdg_desktop) > set TARGET < target-id >
    msf exploit(xdg_desktop) > show options
        ...show and set options...
    msf exploit(xdg_desktop) > exploit
Title
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