How severe is CVE-2014-7169?

CVE-2014-7169 has a CVSS score of 9.8/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2014-7169?

Affected package information for CVE-2014-7169 is not yet fully mapped. Check the official advisory links for details.

How do I fix CVE-2014-7169?

No fixed version has been published for CVE-2014-7169 yet. Monitor the advisory for updates, apply mitigations recommended by the vendor, and use O3 Security to track when a fix becomes available in your stack.

Is CVE-2014-7169 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 21 known exploit references for CVE-2014-7169, including 15 documented proof-of-concept exploits on Exploit-DB and 5 in-the-wild exploitations observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2014-7169?

CVE-2014-7169 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 89.1%, placing it in the 100th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A score above 50% indicates significantly elevated exploitation risk — immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Is CVE-2014-7169 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2014-7169 (GNU Bourne-Again Shell (Bash) Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability) was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 2022-01-28. CISA required all US federal civilian agencies to remediate this vulnerability by 2022-07-28. The required action was: Apply updates per vendor instructions. Being listed in the KEV catalog is the strongest possible confirmation of active exploitation — treat this as a critical priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2014-7169?

CVE-2014-7169 is classified as OS Command Injection (CWE-78). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation. This is a high-impact weakness class that often enables remote code execution or data exposure.

When was CVE-2014-7169 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2014-7169 was published on September 25, 2014 and was last updated on April 16, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

CISA KEV·Added 2022-01-28 — agencies required to remediate by 2022-07-28

CVE-2014-7169

CRITICAL

Published

Sep 25, 2014

Updated

Apr 16, 2026

Affected

0 pkgs

Patched

None yet

Exploits

21 known

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

89.1%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk100th percentile0.00%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

Description

GNU Bash through 4.3 bash43-025 processes trailing strings after certain malformed function definitions in the values of environment variables, which allows remote attackers to write to files or possibly have unknown other impact 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. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2014-6271.

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

EDB-34839webappscgi✓ Verified

IPFire - CGI Web Interface (Authenticated) Bash Environment Variable Code Injection

by Claudio Viviani · Oct 1, 2014

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-35115remotelinux✓ Verified

CUPS Filter - Bash Environment Variable Code Injection (Metasploit)

by Metasploit · Oct 29, 2014

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-34765remotelinux✓ Verified

GNU Bash - 'Shellshock' Environment Variable Command Injection

by Stephane Chazelas · Sep 25, 2014

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-36609webappsmultiple

Kemp Load Master 7.1.16 - Multiple Vulnerabilities

by Roberto Suggi Liverani · Apr 2, 2015

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-34766remotelinux✓ Verified

Bash - 'Shellshock' Environment Variables Command Injection

by Prakhar Prasad & Subho Halder · Sep 25, 2014

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-36503remotehardware

QNAP - Admin Shell via Bash Environment Variable Code Injection (Metasploit)

by Patrick Pellegrino · Mar 26, 2015

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-34860remotelinux

GNU bash 4.3.11 - Environment Variable dhclient

by @0x00string · Oct 2, 2014

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-34895webappscgi✓ Verified

Bash CGI - 'Shellshock' Remote Command Injection (Metasploit)

by Fady Mohammed Osman · Oct 6, 2014

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-35146webappsphp

PHP < 5.6.2 - 'Shellshock' Safe Mode / disable_functions Bypass / Command Injection

by Ryan King (Starfall) · Nov 3, 2014

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-34896remotelinux✓ Verified

Postfix SMTP 4.2.x < 4.2.48 - 'Shellshock' Remote Command Injection

by Phil Blank · Oct 6, 2014

Exploit-DB Source

Frequently Asked Questions

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2014-7169 in your stack?

O3 detects CVE-2014-7169 across dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

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