CVE-2025-31477 — tauri-plugin-shell
Fix: tauri-apps/plugins-workspace@9cf0390CVE-2025-31477 is a Improper Input Validation vulnerability in tauri-plugin-shell. A fix is available for tauri-plugin-shell — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Improper Scope Validation in the open Endpoint of tauri-plugin-shell
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed 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-2025-31477.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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.
Real-World Exposure
tauri-plugin-shell📦@tauri-apps/plugin-shellReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io, npm packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
The Tauri shell plugin exposes functionality to execute code and open programs on the system. The open endpoint of this plugin is designed to allow open functionality with the system opener (e.g.
xdg-open on Linux). This was meant to be restricted to a reasonable number of protocols like https or mailto by default.
This default restriction was not functional due to improper validation of the allowed protocols, allowing for potentially dangerous protocols like file://, smb://, or nfs:// and others to be opened by the system registered protocol handler.
By passing untrusted user input to the open endpoint these potentially dangerous protocols can be abused to gain remote code execution on the system. This either requires direct exposure of the endpoint to application users or code execution in the frontend of a Tauri application.
You are not affected if you have explicitly configured a validation regex or manually set the open endpoint to true in the plugin configuration.
Technically the scope was never a limitation for the rust side as it is not seen as an enforceable security boundary but we decided to mark the rust crate as affected since the plugin does not need to be a frontend dependency to be exposed.
Patches
The issue has been patched in the 2.2.1 version of the plugin.
The plugin now differentiates between an unset scope and an explicit validation disable for the open endpoint.
Workarounds
A way to prevent arbitrary protocols would be setting the shell plugin configuration value open to true.
tauri.conf.json
"plugins": {
"shell": {
"open": true
},
}
The above will only allow mailto, http and https links to be opened.
If the open endpoint should not be allowed at all there are two possible workarounds.
- Defining a non matching regex like
tauri^in the plugin configuration - Removing
shell:defaultand all instances ofshell:allow-openfrom thecapabilities
Alternatively we recommend usage of the opener plugin, as the shell plugin deprecated the open endpoint previously.
References
PoC
This is a windows specific proof of concept.
- Use
create-tauri-appto make a new Tauri app. - Run
tauri add shellto add the shell plugin. - Execute
await window.__TAURI_INTERNALS__.invoke("plugin:shell|open", {path: "file:///c:/windows/system32/calc.exe"});in the developer console. - Observe the calculator being executed
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | tauri-plugin-shell | all versions | 2.2.1cargo update -p tauri-plugin-shell --precise 2.2.1 |
| 📦npm | @tauri-apps/plugin-shell | all versions | 2.2.1npm install @tauri-apps/plugin-shell@2.2.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for tauri-plugin-shell, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update tauri-plugin-shell to 2.2.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-31477 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2025-31477 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2025-31477. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2025-31477 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2025-31477 across crates.io, npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.