Read the docs
TI-2023-26920 Aliases CVE-2023-49284

Command substitution output can trigger shell expansion in fish shell

Priority LOW 30CWE-436Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Local
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
Required
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
—
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
High · None · High
Fix status
Fixed

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA.

Summary

fish is a smart and user-friendly command line shell for macOS, Linux, and the rest of the family. fish shell uses certain Unicode non-characters internally for marking wildcards and expansions. It will incorrectly allow these markers to be read on command substitution output, rather than transforming them into a safe internal representation. While this may cause unexpected behavior with direct input (for example, echo \UFDD2HOME has the same output as echo $HOME), this may become a minor security problem if the output is being fed from an external program into a command substitution where this output may not be expected. This design flaw was introduced in very early versions of fish, predating the version control system, and is thought to be present in every version of fish released in the last 15 years or more, although with different characters. Code execution does not appear to be possible, but denial of service (through large brace expansion) or information disclosure (such as variable expansion) is potentially possible under certain circumstances. fish shell 3.6.2 has been released to correct this issue. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Why it matters now

EPSS 0.00475 41st percentileScored 2026-11-07
Public exploit Yes 1 exploit referenceTagged by NVD
Fix Fixed fish-shell (fish-shell): 3.6.2

SSVC decision points

Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
fish-shellfish-shellbefore 3.6.23.6.2Patch availableCNA
  • fish-shell Vendorfish-shell Affected before 3.6.2 Fixed in 3.6.2 Patch available CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 1

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:a:fishshell:fish:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*before 3.6.2Vulnerablefish-shell
  • cpe:2.3:a:fishshell:fish:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions before 3.6.2 Vulnerable ·fish-shell

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA fish-shell (fish-shell) Fixed in 3.6.2

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat's page for this CVE →

Not affected: 1 product
  • Red Hat

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2023-49284

References

  • TI-2014-02341 fish (aka fish-shell) 2.0.0 before 2.1.1 does not restrict access to the configuration… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2022-04585 Injection in fish CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.8
  • TI-2014-02578 fish before 2.1.1 allows local users to write to arbitrary files via a symlink attack on… CVSS 3.0HIGH 7.8
  • TI-2014-03133 The funced function in fish (aka fish-shell) 1.23.0 before 2.1.1 does not properly create… CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.0
  • TI-2014-02336 The psub function in fish (aka fish-shell) 1.16.0 before 2.1.1 does not properly create… CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.0
  • TI-2014-02335 fish (aka fish-shell) 1.16.0 before 2.1.1 does not properly check the credentials, which… CVSS 2.0MEDIUM 6.9

Sources