CVE-2024-30205
Emacs vulnerability analysis and mitigation

Overview

CVE-2024-30205 affects Emacs versions before 29.3 and Org Mode versions before 9.6.23, where Org mode incorrectly considers contents of remote files to be trusted. The vulnerability was disclosed on March 25, 2024, and affects the security of Emacs text editor and its Org mode component (NVD, Debian LTS).

Technical details

The vulnerability stems from a security design flaw where Org mode treats remote files, including those accessed through TRAMP (Transparent Remote Access, Multiple Protocol), as trusted content. This behavior could potentially allow malicious remote content to be executed with the same trust level as local files. The issue has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.1 (HIGH) with vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H, indicating local access vector with low attack complexity and no privileges required but user interaction needed (NVD).

Impact

The vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute malicious code through remote files that are treated as trusted by Org mode. This could lead to unauthorized code execution within the context of the user's Emacs session when opening remote files or accessing content through TRAMP (Emacs Commit).

Mitigation and workarounds

The vulnerability has been fixed in Emacs 29.3 and Org Mode 9.6.23. The fix involves treating all remote files as untrusted by default by implementing additional checks using the file-remote-p function. Users are strongly recommended to upgrade to these versions or later. For systems that cannot be immediately upgraded, the safest workaround is to avoid opening untrusted remote files in Org mode (Org Mode Commit, Debian LTS).

Additional resources


SourceThis report was generated using AI

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