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Actively exploited · Published Sep 30, 2014 · Assigned by debian

CVE-2014-6278

High 8.8 Exploited

In plain English

A high-severity OS command injection in GNU Bash from GNU. Attackers are actively exploiting it in the wild (listed by CISA on October 2, 2025). The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 99.7% (higher than 99.9% of all known vulnerabilities). Ready-made attack tooling exists: Metasploit. Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)8.8High
Exploit odds (30 days)99.7%top 0.0% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildYesCISA KEV since Oct 2, 2025
Attack tooling1Metasploit

CISA guidance

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

Federal agencies must remediate by Oct 23, 2025.

Official description

GNU Bash through 4.3 bash43-026 does not properly parse function definitions in the values of environment variables, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via a crafted environment, as demonstrated by vectors involving the ForceCommand feature in OpenSSH sshd, the mod_cgi and mod_cgid modules in the Apache HTTP Server, scripts executed by unspecified DHCP clients, and other situations in which setting the environment occurs across a privilege boundary from Bash execution. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2014-6271, CVE-2014-7169, and CVE-2014-6277.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12bash4.3-9.2DEBIAN-CVE-2014-6278
Debian:13bash4.3-9.2DEBIAN-CVE-2014-6278
Debian:14bash4.3-9.2DEBIAN-CVE-2014-6278

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
n/a n/a n/a

Weakness: CWE-78 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References