Welcome to a detailed discussion on CVE-2023-28617, a significant cybersecurity vulnerability that has been identified in Org Mode for GNU Emacs. This issue has been ranked with a HIGH severity rating and a CVSS score of 7.8, indicating its potential impact on affected systems. Our goal is to provide LinuxPatch customers and other interested readers with a comprehensive understanding of this vulnerability, how it affects you, and the steps that can be taken to mitigate its risks.
Org Mode is a powerful tool integrated within GNU Emacs, widely used for keeping notes, maintaining TODO lists, planning projects, and authoring documents with a fast and effective plain-text system. It is particularly favored among academics, programmers, and anyone involved in data organization and document preparation. Its ability to execute code blocks in various programming languages makes it exceptionally useful but also an area of potential security vulnerabilities.
The vulnerability in question, identified as CVE-2023-28617, affects Org Mode up to and including version 9.6.1. The core of the vulnerability lies in the org-babel-execute:latex function within ob-latex.el, a component of Org Mode. This function allows for the execution of LaTeX commands within Org documents. However, the function fails to properly sanitize input, particularly with respect to file names and directory names that include shell metacharacters. Shell metacharacters are characters or sequences of characters that have a special meaning to the shell, such as $, &, |, etc., and can be used to manipulate operations or execute arbitrary commands.
Due to this vulnerability, an attacker could exploit the lack of input validation to execute arbitrary commands on a user’s system by crafting a malicious file name or directory name that contains these special characters. Once a user processes such files through Org Mode’s LaTeX function, it could lead to unauthorized command execution, potentially affecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the user’s system.
This vulnerability poses a serious security risk, particularly for users who frequently handle and execute LaTeX code within Org Mode. The execution of arbitrary commands can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive information, system compromise, and other malicious activities by attackers. Users of GNU Emacs who operate with elevated system privileges are particularly at risk, as the executed commands might inherit these privileges, thus broadening the scope of the attack.
To protect against this vulnerability, users should immediately apply patches or updates provided by the developers of Org Mode. Since the impact of this issue is significant due to the capabilities of command execution via shell metacharacters, it is critical to update to Org Mode version 9.6.2 or later, where this vulnerability has been addressed.
Additionally, users should consider adopting safe practices when handling files and directories, such as:
By taking these precautions, users can significantly reduce the risk of exploitation due to this vulnerability.
CVE-2023-28617 highlights the need for continuous vigilance and prompt updates in the realm of cybersecurity, especially for tools as powerful and widespread as GNU Emacs’s Org Mode. For LinuxPatch customers, staying informed about such vulnerabilities and understanding how to mitigate them is crucial in maintaining secure operations. We are committed to providing you with the latest updates and protection advice to safeguard your linux environments against such vulnerabilities.
Please continue to monitor our updates for more information on this and other cybersecurity issues.