RCE in Electron
CVE-2017-12581
GitHub Electron before 1.6.8 allows remote command execution because of a nodeIntegration bypass vulnerability. This also affects all applications that bundle Electron code equivalent to 1.6.8 or earlier. Bypassing the Same Origin Policy (SOP) is a precondition; however, recent Electron versions do not have strict SOP enforcement. Combining an SOP bypass with a privileged URL internally used by Electron, it was possible to execute native Node.js primitives in order to run OS commands on the user's host. Specifically, a chrome-devtools://devtools/bundled/inspector.html window could be used to eval a Node.js child_process.execFile API call.
Vulnerability class: Command Injection (OS Command Injection)
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 8.1 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.067 (93.7th percentile), scored .
Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 94th percentile — 93.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.067 · newest: 0.067 · change: 0.000
Affected products
Weakness classification (CWE)
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
- doyensec.com/resources/us-17-Carettoni-Electronegativity-A-Study-Of-Electron-Se… (Technical Description, Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
- blog.doyensec.com/2017/08/03/electron-framework-security.html (Technical Description, Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2017-12581?
- CVE-2017-12581 is a high-severity vulnerability in Electron, classified under OS Command Injection. CVSS score: 8.1/10. Published 2017-08-06.
- How severe is CVE-2017-12581?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.1 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2017-12581 known to be exploited?
- 4 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.