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Case File

CVE-2018-20167

HIGH · CVSS 7.8 EPSS 2.65% Public Exploit

Source: NVD + CISA KEV + EPSS (historical backfill) · Published 2018-12-17 · Last synced 2026-08-04

CyberRota Analysis

This is a high severity vulnerability with a CVSS score of 7.8. Public exploit code or proof-of-concept references have been detected in its references. It may be remotely exploitable.

Public Exploit Signal

A public exploit, PoC, GitHub repository or Metasploit reference was detected for this CVE.

Detected Signals
remote code execution code execution

Note: these links are listed for security research and verification purposes only.

CVE
CVE-2018-20167
Severity
HIGH
CVSS
7.8
EPSS
2.65%

Original NVD 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.

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