CVE-2014-10070 [High] | Privilege Escalation in Zsh

zsh before 5.0.7 allows evaluation of the initial values of integer variables imported from the environment (instead of treating them as literal numbers). That could allow local privilege escalation, under some specific and atypical conditions where zsh is being invoked in privilege-elevation contexts when the environment has not been properly sanitized, such as when zsh is invoked by sudo on systems where "env_reset" has been disabled.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-06-15	0.15%	0.50%	+0.35%
2	2025-12-02	0.14%	0.15%	+0.01%
3	2025-11-30	—	0.14%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-06-15

0.15%

0.50%

+0.35%

2025-12-02

0.14%

0.15%

+0.01%

2025-11-30

—

0.14%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
7.8	3.0	HIGH	`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:L) They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by. Attack complexity (AC:L) Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup. Privileges required (PR:L) A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin. User interaction (UI:N) Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping. Scope (S:U) Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems. Confidentiality (C:H) Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way. Integrity (I:H) They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt. Availability (A:H) Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.	1.8	5.9	[email protected]
4.6	2.0	MEDIUM	`AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P` Click to expand Access vector (AV:L) Requires local access to the target system. Access complexity (AC:L) Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable. Authentication (AU:N) No authentication is required. Confidentiality impact (C:P) Partial confidentiality impact. Integrity impact (I:P) Partial integrity impact. Availability impact (A:P) Partial availability impact.	3.9	6.4	[email protected]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

7.8

3.0

HIGH

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand

Attack vector (AV:L): They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L): Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L): A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N): Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U): Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H): Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H): They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H): Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

1.8

5.9

[email protected]

4.6

2.0

MEDIUM

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand

Access vector (AV:L): Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:L): Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N): No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P): Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P): Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P): Partial availability impact.

3.9

6.4

[email protected]

OS Trackers for CVE-2014-10070

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	not yet assigned	CVE-2014-10070 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (zsh), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5.	https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2014-10070
`redhat`	low	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2014-10070
`suse`	high	CVE-2014-10070 severity important: SUSE including 3 source package names (zsh, zsh-4.3.6-67.9.8.1, zsh-5.0.5-6.7.2), 57 product×package rows across 57 product lines (Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-BYOS, Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-Basic-On-Demand, … (57 product lines)): Fixed 31, Known Not Affected 26.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2014-10070/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2014-10070 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (zsh), 4 status rows across 4 suites (artful, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 2, needs-triage 1, not-affected 1.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2014-10070

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2014-10070

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
zsh_project	zsh	<= 5.0.6	cpe:2.3:a:zsh_project:zsh::::::::

References for CVE-2014-10070

URL	Tags
http://zsh.sourceforge.net/releases.html	Release Notes Third Party Advisory
https://sourceforge.net/p/zsh/code/ci/546203a770cec329e73781c3c8ab1078390aee72	Patch Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3593-1/

URL

CVE-2014-10070

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2014-10070

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2014-10070

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2014-10070

OS Trackers for CVE-2014-10070

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2014-10070

References for CVE-2014-10070