GHSA-6gcw-w7cp-94g9 is a low-severity (CVSS 3.3) CWE-176 vulnerability in uu_comm. A fix is available for uu_comm — see the affected versions and patch details below.
comm: lossy UTF-8 conversion silently corrupts non-UTF-8 output
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.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-6gcw-w7cp-94g9.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-6gcw-w7cp-94g9 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 382,574 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
uu_commReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
The comm utility in uutils coreutils silently corrupts data by performing lossy UTF-8 conversion on all output lines. The implementation uses String::from_utf8_lossy(), which replaces invalid UTF-8 byte sequences with the Unicode replacement character (U+FFFD). This behavior differs from GNU comm, which processes raw bytes and preserves the original input. This results in corrupted output when the utility is used to compare binary files or files using non-UTF-8 legacy encodings.
Zellic finding 3.34. Reported in the Zellic uutils coreutils Program Security Assessment (for Canonical, Jan 2026), audited commit 3a07ffc5a9bd4c283e75afa548ba1f1957bad242.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | uu_comm | all versions | 0.6.0cargo update -p uu_comm --precise 0.6.0 |
Affected Products
coreutilsuutilsDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for uu_comm, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update uu_comm to 0.6.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-6gcw-w7cp-94g9 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-6gcw-w7cp-94g9 in your dependencies?
Find it across crates.io, including transitive dependencies.