xterm: Arbitrary Code Execution — GLSA 202211-09

A vulnerability has been found in xterm which could allow for arbitrary code execution.

Affected packages

Package	x11-terms/xterm on all architectures
Affected versions	< 375
Unaffected versions	>= 375

Background

xterm is a terminal emulator for the X Window system.

Description

xterm does not correctly handle control characters related to OSC 50 font ops sequence handling.

Impact

The vulnerability allows text written to the terminal to write text to the terminal's command line. If the terminal's shell is zsh running with vi line editing mode, text written to the terminal can also trigger the execution of arbitrary commands via writing ^G to the terminal.

Workaround

As a workaround, users can disable xterm's usage of OSC 50 sequences by adding the following to the XResources configuration: XTerm*allowFontOps: false

Resolution

All xterm users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=x11-terms/xterm-375"

References

CVE-2022-45063

Release date
November 22, 2022

Latest revision
November 22, 2022: 1

Severity
normal

Exploitable
remote

Bugzilla entries

880747