Improper Privilege Management in NetHack

1) Improper Privilege Management

EUVDB-ID: #VU34796

Risk: High

CVSSv4.0: 8.1 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Amber]

CVE-ID: CVE-2020-5253

CWE-ID: CWE-269 - Improper Privilege Management

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote non-authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code.

NetHack before version 3.6.0 allowed malicious use of escaping of characters in the configuration file (usually .nethackrc) which could be exploited. This bug is patched in NetHack 3.6.0.

Mitigation

Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

NetHack: 3.2.3 - 3.4.3

CPE2.3

• cpe:2.3:a:the_nethack_devteam:nethack:3.2.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
• cpe:2.3:a:the_nethack_devteam:nethack:3.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
• cpe:2.3:a:the_nethack_devteam:nethack:3.3.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

External links

https://github.com/NetHack/NetHack/commits/612755bfb5c412079795c68ba392df5d93874ed8
https://github.com/NetHack/NetHack/security/advisories/GHSA-2c7p-3fj4-223m

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

How the attacker can exploit this vulnerability?

The attacker would have to trick the victim to open a a specially crafted file.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.