CVE-2014-6278

gnu bash

Published 30 Sept 2014 · updated 17 Jun 2026 · Analyzed

8.8 High · CVSS 3.1, CISA ADP

Exploited in the wild

CISA added this to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2 Oct 2025, with a remediation deadline of 23 Oct 2025 for US federal agencies.

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

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.

References