A flaw was found in Exuberant Ctags in the way it handles the "-o" option. This option specifies the tag filename. A crafted tag filename specified in the command line or in the configuration file results in arbitrary command execution because the externalSortTags() in sort.c calls the system(3) function in an unsafe way.
CVSS Details
- CVSS 3.1 Base Score: 7.8
- CVSS 3.1 Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H)
Covered by Rapid7
| Product | Vendor Advisory | Solution File | Added | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alma_linux | — | Upgrade ctags-etagsUpgrade ctags | May 23, 2023 | Dec 20, 2022 |
| Amazon Linux Ami 2 | — | Upgrade ctags-debuginfoUpgrade ctags-etagsUpgrade ctags | Nov 16, 2023 | Dec 20, 2022 |
| Amazon_linux | — | Upgrade ctags | Apr 30, 2025 | Dec 20, 2022 |
| Centos_linux | — | Upgrade ctagsUpgrade ctags-debugsourceUpgrade ctags-debuginfo | May 17, 2023 | Dec 20, 2022 |
| Debian | — | Upgrade exuberant-ctags | Jan 4, 2023 | Dec 20, 2022 |
| Oracle_linux | — | Upgrade ctagsUpgrade ctags-etags | May 24, 2023 | Dec 19, 2022 |
| Redhat_linux | — | Upgrade ctagsNo solution existsUpgrade ctags-debuginfoUpgrade ctags-etagsUpgrade ctags-debugsource | May 17, 2023 | Dec 20, 2022 |
| Rocky_linux | — | Upgrade ctags-etagsUpgrade ctags-debuginfoUpgrade ctagsUpgrade ctags-debugsource | Jun 29, 2026 | Jun 25, 2026 |
| Suse | — | Upgrade ctags | Feb 2, 2023 | Dec 20, 2022 |
| Ubuntu | — | Upgrade exuberant-ctags (Ubuntu Pro)Upgrade exuberant-ctags | Jan 24, 2023 | Dec 20, 2022 |
| Vmware Photon_os | — | Use 'tdnf update' to upgrade all packages to the latest version. | Feb 9, 2026 | Dec 20, 2022 |
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