CVE-2014-6271 — Oracle
CRITICALCVE-2014-6271 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) OS Command Injection vulnerability. 79 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- CISA’s SSVC triage classifies this CVE as under active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2014-6271.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2014-6271 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 394,415 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Description
GNU Bash through 4.3 processes trailing strings after function definitions in the values of environment variables, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted environment, as demonstrated by vectors involving the ForceCommand feature in OpenSSH sshd, the mod_cgi and mod_cgid modules in the Apache HTTP Server, scripts executed by unspecified DHCP clients, and other situations in which setting the environment occurs across a privilege boundary from Bash execution, aka "ShellShock." NOTE: the original fix for this issue was incorrect; CVE-2014-7169 has been assigned to cover the vulnerability that is still present after the incorrect fix.
Affected Products
mac os xappleeosaristaubuntu linuxcanonicalsecurity gatewaycheckpointnetscaler sdx firmwarecitrixdebian linuxdebianResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Pure-FTPd - External Authentication Bash Environment Variable Code Injection (Metasploit)
by Metasploit · Oct 2, 2014
GNU Bash - Environment Variable Command Injection (Metasploit)
by Shaun Colley · Sep 25, 2014
IPFire - CGI Web Interface (Authenticated) Bash Environment Variable Code Injection
by Claudio Viviani · Oct 1, 2014
Bash - 'Shellshock' Environment Variables Command Injection
by Prakhar Prasad & Subho Halder · Sep 25, 2014
OpenVPN 2.2.29 - 'Shellshock' Remote Command Injection
by hobbily plunt · Oct 4, 2014
GNU bash 4.3.11 - Environment Variable dhclient
by @0x00string · Oct 2, 2014
Advantech Switch - 'Shellshock' Bash Environment Variable Command Injection (Metasploit)
by Metasploit · Dec 2, 2015
RedStar 3.0 Server - 'Shellshock' 'BEAM' / 'RSSMON' Command Injection
by Hacker Fantastic · Dec 18, 2016
QNAP - Admin Shell via Bash Environment Variable Code Injection (Metasploit)
by Patrick Pellegrino · Mar 26, 2015
Kemp Load Master 7.1.16 - Multiple Vulnerabilities
by Roberto Suggi Liverani · Apr 2, 2015
Detection & mitigation playbook
VulnerabilityDetect
Identify every host running the affected component and compare the installed build against the fixed version below — for source-built or distro-packaged software the version string, not a lockfile, is the source of truth (`dpkg -l`, `rpm -q`, or the binary's own `--version`).
Remediation status
No fixed release is recorded for CVE-2014-6271 yet. Track the upstream advisory, and apply the exposure-reduction steps below in the meantime.
Mitigate without a patch
Stop passing untrusted input into the interpreter or shell: call the affected binary with an argument array rather than a composed command string, reject anything outside a strict allowlist of expected values, and run the component under an account that cannot reach beyond the work it legitimately does.
How to detect CVE-2014-6271
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id cve-2014-6271 -u https://target- Template
- ShellShock - Remote Code Execution
- Severity
- critical
- Impact
- Remote code execution can lead to unauthorized access, data theft, and system compromise.
- Remediation
- Apply the necessary patches and updates provided by the vendor to fix the vulnerability.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (pentest_swissky, 0xelkomy), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Extended Lifecycle Support | bash-0:3.0-27.el4.2 | RHSA-2014:1294 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | bash-0:3.2-33.el5.1 | RHSA-2014:1293 |
| RHEV Manager version 3.4 | rhev-hypervisor6-0:6.5-20140930.1.el6ev | RHSA-2014:1354 |
| S-JIS for Red Hat Enteprise Linux 5 | bash-0:3.2-33.el5_11.1.sjis.1 | RHSA-2014:1295 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2014-6271 in your dependencies?
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