CVE-2020-11934

MEDIUM

Ubuntu Linux - Unintended Access Restriction Bypass via snapctl user-open XDG_DATA_DIRS Manipulation

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

It was discovered that snapctl user-open allowed altering the $XDG_DATA_DIRS environment variable when calling the system xdg-open. OpenURL() in usersession/userd/launcher.go would alter $XDG_DATA_DIRS to append a path to a directory controlled by the calling snap. A malicious snap could exploit this to bypass intended access restrictions to control how the host system xdg-open script opens the URL and, for example, execute a script shipped with the snap without confinement. This issue did not affect Ubuntu Core systems. Fixed in snapd versions 2.45.1ubuntu0.2, 2.45.1+18.04.2 and 2.45.1+20.04.2.

References (2)

Core 2
Core References
Vendor Advisory x_refsource_confirm
https://ubuntu.com/USN-4424-1
Third Party Advisory x_refsource_confirm
https://launchpad.net/bugs/1880085

Scores

CVSS v3 5.9
EPSS 0.0004
EPSS Percentile 14.1%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N

Details

CWE
CWE-668
Status published
Products (4)
canonical/ubuntu_linux 16.04
canonical/ubuntu_linux 18.04
canonical/ubuntu_linux 19.10
canonical/ubuntu_linux 20.04
Published Jul 29, 2020
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026