CVE-2018-20167

Publication date 17 December 2018

Last updated 26 August 2025

Ubuntu priority

Medium

Why this priority?

Cvss 3 Severity Score

7.8 · High

Score breakdown

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.

Status

Package Ubuntu Release Status
terminology 25.10 questing
Not affected
25.04 plucky
Not affected
24.10 oracular
Not affected
24.04 LTS noble
Not affected
23.10 mantic
Not affected
23.04 lunar
Not affected
22.10 kinetic Ignored end of life, was needs-triage
22.04 LTS jammy
Needs evaluation
21.10 impish Ignored end of life
21.04 hirsute Ignored end of life
20.10 groovy Ignored end of life
20.04 LTS focal
Needs evaluation
19.10 eoan Ignored end of life
19.04 disco Ignored end of life
18.10 cosmic Ignored end of life
18.04 LTS bionic
Needs evaluation
16.04 LTS xenial
Needs evaluation
14.04 LTS trusty Not in release

Severity score breakdown

Parameter Value
Base score 7.8 · High
Attack vector Local
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction Required
Scope Unchanged
Confidentiality High
Integrity impact High
Availability impact High
Vector CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References

Other references