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 release is recorded for CVE-2014-7169 yet. Track the upstream advisory, and apply the exposure-reduction steps below in the meantime.

How do I detect CVE-2014-7169 in my code and dependencies?

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`).

How do I mitigate CVE-2014-7169 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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.

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 99.9%, 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 · ACTIVELY EXPLOITED

CRITICAL severity

CVE-2014-7169 — Oracle

CRITICAL

CVE-2014-7169 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) OS Command Injection vulnerability. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-01-28) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.

Published

Sep 25, 2014

Updated

Apr 16, 2026

Affected

74 products

Patched

See advisory

Exploits

21 known

Exploitation data as of Oct 23, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-01-28. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-07-28.
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 (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2014-7169.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

99.9%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs100th percentile — riskier than 100% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2014-7169 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 394,803 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 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.

Affected Products

74 products · 334 configurations

mac os xapple

≥ 10.0.0 && < 10.10.0

range

eosarista

≥ 4.14.0 && < 4.14.4f

range

ubuntu linuxcanonical

3 versions

10.0412.0414.04

Application

security gatewaycheckpoint

< r77.30

range

netscaler sdx firmwarecitrix

≥ 10.5 && < 10.5.52.11r1

range

debian linuxdebian

1 version

7.0

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-34860remotelinux

GNU bash 4.3.11 - Environment Variable dhclient

by @0x00string · Oct 2, 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

EDB-36503remotehardware

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

by Patrick Pellegrino · Mar 26, 2015

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-34765remotelinux✓ Verified

GNU Bash - 'Shellshock' Environment Variable Command Injection

by Stephane Chazelas · Sep 25, 2014

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-34777remotecgi✓ Verified

GNU Bash - Environment Variable Command Injection (Metasploit)

by Shaun Colley · Sep 25, 2014

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-34766remotelinux✓ Verified

Bash - 'Shellshock' Environment Variables Command Injection

by Prakhar Prasad & Subho Halder · Sep 25, 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-36933remotelinux✓ Verified

dhclient 4.1 - Bash Environment Variable Command Injection (Shellshock)

by fdiskyou · Sep 29, 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-34879remotelinux

OpenVPN 2.2.29 - 'Shellshock' Remote Command Injection

by hobbily plunt · Oct 4, 2014

Exploit-DB Source

Detection & mitigation playbook

Vulnerability

Detect
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-2014-7169 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.

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.

Red HatImportant

Product	Fixed in	Advisory
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Extended Lifecycle Support	`bash-0:3.0-27.el4.4`	RHSA-2014:1311
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5	`bash-0:3.2-33.el5_11.4`	RHSA-2014:1306
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.2`	RHSA-2014:1312
S-JIS for RHEL 5.9.Z	`bash-0:3.2-32.el5_9.3.sjis.1`	RHSA-2014:1865

UbuntuCRITICAL

USN-2363-2Ubuntu USN-2363-1Ubuntu

Frequently Asked Questions

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CVE-2014-7169 — Oracle

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

EPSS Exploitation Probability

How urgent is this, really

Where this sits among everything scored

Description

Affected Products

Detection & mitigation playbook

Detect

Remediation status

Mitigate without a patch

Fixing This On Your OS

Frequently Asked Questions

Is CVE-2014-7169 in your dependencies?