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CVE-2017-18266

26
FAUCET Score

CVE-2017-18266 describes an argument-injection vulnerability in xdg-open within xdg-utils versions prior to 1.1.3, impacting various Linux distributions including Canonical, Debian, and Freedesktop. This high-severity vulnerability (CVSS 8.8) allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands by crafting a malicious URL that exploits the BROWSER environment variable, requiring user interaction. Despite its critical impact, there is no evidence of active exploitation, publicly available exploit code in Metasploit, Nuclei, or ExploitDB, and minimal community discussion or media coverage.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
< 1.1.3CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:freedesktop:xdg-utils:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
7.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
8.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
9.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
14.04CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.0

8.8HIGH

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
2.8
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
2.49%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
83.0%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-26
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0249 is in the 82nd percentile among its peer group of 14,848 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.2 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.1 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2017-18266Low

xdg-utils: Argument injection vulnerability in open_envvar() function

Nov 18, 2017

References

bugs.freedesktop.org / show_bug.cgi
Issue TrackingPatch
cgit.freedesktop.org / xdg/xdg-utils/commit
Release Notes
cgit.freedesktop.org / xdg/xdg-utils/commit
Patch
cgit.freedesktop.org / xdg/xdg-utils/tree/ChangeLog
Release Notes
lists.debian.org / debian-lts-announce/2018/05/msg00014.html
Third Party Advisory
usn.ubuntu.com / 3650-1
Third Party Advisory
debian.org / security/2018/dsa-4211
Third Party Advisory