CVE-2017-14604

Exp

GNOME Nautilus before 3.23.90 allows attackers to spoof a file type by using the .desktop file extension, as demonstrated by an attack in which a .desktop file's Name field ends in .pdf but this file's Exec field launches a malicious "sh -c" command. In other words, Nautilus provides no UI indication that a file actually has the potentially unsafe .desktop extension; instead, the UI only shows the .pdf extension. One (slightly) mitigating factor is that an attack requires the .desktop file to have execute permission. The solution is to ask the user to confirm that the file is supposed to be treated as a .desktop file, and then remember the user's answer in the metadata::trusted field.

Published: 2017-09-20 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2017-14604 is rated High Exploit Risk (68.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.47%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2017-14604

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2017-14604

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 3.91% 2.47% -1.44%
2 2025-12-09 4.75% 3.91% -0.84%
3 2025-11-18 — 4.75% —

Full EPSS history (14 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2017-14604

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.8 3.6 [email protected]
4.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 8.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2017-14604

OS Trackers for CVE-2017-14604

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2017-14604 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (nautilus), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-14604
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-14604
suse medium CVE-2017-14604 severity moderate: SUSE including 26 source package names (gnome-shell-search-provider-nautilus-3.20.3-23.12.10, gnome-shell-search-provider-nautilus-3.20.3-23.3.14, …), 65 product×package rows across 21 product lines (SUSE Liberty Linux 7, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP3, … (21 product lines)): Fixed 65. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-14604/
ubuntu low CVE-2017-14604 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (nautilus), 21 status rows across 21 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial, zesty): not-affected 17, DNE 1, ignored 1, needed 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-14604

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-14604

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gnome nautilus < 3.23.90 cpe:2.3:a:gnome:nautilus:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2017-14604

URL Tags
http://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3994 Third Party Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/101012 Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:0223 Third Party Advisory
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=860268 Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=777991 Issue Tracking Vendor Advisory
https://github.com/GNOME/nautilus/commit/1630f53481f445ada0a455e9979236d31a8d3bb0 Issue Tracking Patch Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/GNOME/nautilus/commit/bc919205bf774f6af3fa7154506c46039af5a69b Issue Tracking Patch Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/freedomofpress/securedrop/issues/2238 Third Party Advisory
https://micahflee.com/2017/04/breaking-the-security-model-of-subgraph-os/ Exploit Third Party Advisory
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