GHSA-pmfc-4wjj-gmhx is a low-severity (CVSS 3.3) CWE-684 vulnerability in uu_cut. A fix is available for uu_cut — see the affected versions and patch details below.
cut: -s ignored in -z -d '' newline-delimiter mode
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-pmfc-4wjj-gmhx.
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.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-pmfc-4wjj-gmhx plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
uu_cutReal-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
cut routes -z -d '' through a special newline-delimiter path that ignores the -s only-delimited flag, emitting whole undelimited records (plus NUL) that should be suppressed. Pipelines relying on cut -s to drop undelimited records process data that should be filtered.
printf 'abc' | cut -z -d '' -s -f 1 | od -An -tx1 # GNU: no output ; uutils: 61 62 63 00
Zellic private finding (zellic-ext/coreutils-private PR #102). 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_cut | all versions | 0.7.0cargo update -p uu_cut --precise 0.7.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for uu_cut, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update uu_cut to 0.7.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-pmfc-4wjj-gmhx 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 GHSA-pmfc-4wjj-gmhx can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-pmfc-4wjj-gmhx. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-pmfc-4wjj-gmhx in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-pmfc-4wjj-gmhx across crates.io dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.