uutils coreutils env Local Denial of Service via Improper Handling of Backslashes in Split-String Mode
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · Low
- Fix status
- No fix listed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and GitHub.
Summary
A logic error in the env utility of uutils coreutils causes a failure to correctly parse command-line arguments when utilizing the -S (split-string) option. In GNU env, backslashes within single quotes are treated literally (with the exceptions of \\ and \'). However, the uutils implementation incorrectly attempts to validate these sequences, resulting in an "invalid sequence" error and an immediate process termination with an exit status of 125 when encountering valid but unrecognized sequences like \a or \x. This divergence from GNU behavior breaks compatibility for automated scripts and administrative workflows that rely on standard split-string semantics, leading to a local denial of service for those operations.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uutils | coreutils | — | — | No fix listed | CNA |
| — | coreutils (crates.io) | up to 0.8.0 | — | No fix listed | GHSA-5v4g-vw9x-h534 |
- coreutils VendorUutils Affected — Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
- coreutils (crates.io) Vendor— Affected up to 0.8.0 Fixed in — No fix listed GHSA-5v4g-vw9x-h534
Remediation
No fixed version listed by the sources yet.
Vendor assessments
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-35377
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-5v4g-vw9x-h534
References
More Uutils Coreutils vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-27506 uutils coreutils chroot Local Privilege Escalation and chroot Escape in via Name Service Switch (NSS) Injection CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.2
- TI-2026-27498 uutils coreutils touch Arbitrary File Truncation via TOCTOU Race Condition CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.3
- TI-2026-27488 uutils coreutils cp Unexpected Privileged Executable Creation with -p CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.6
- TI-2026-27502 uutils coreutils mv Arbitrary File Overwrite via Cross-Device TOCTOU Race Condition CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.3
- TI-2026-27493 uutils coreutils install Arbitrary File Overwrite via Symlink TOCTOU Race CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.3
- TI-2026-27511 uutils coreutils ln Local Denial of Service via Improper Handling of Non-UTF-8 Filenames CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.5
Sources
- CVE-2026-35377 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-35377 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-5v4g-vw9x-h534 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-35377 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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