CVE-2017-16667

backintime (aka Back in Time) before 1.1.24 did improper escaping/quoting of file paths used as arguments to the 'notify-send' command, leading to some parts of file paths being executed as shell commands within an os.system call in qt4/plugins/notifyplugin.py. This could allow an attacker to craft an unreadable file with a specific name to run arbitrary shell commands.

Published: 2017-11-08 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2017-16667 is rated Moderate Risk (56.8/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.46%). EPSS rose +1.03% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2017-16667

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 0.43% 1.46% +1.03%
2 2026-04-11 0.20% 0.43% +0.24%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.20% —

Full EPSS history (6 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2017-16667

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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]
9.3 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 8.6 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2017-16667

OS Trackers for CVE-2017-16667

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2017-16667 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (backintime), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-16667
gentoo normal CVE-2017-16667: 1 GLSA(s) (201801-06), 1 atom(s) (app-backup/backintime); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2017-16667
ubuntu medium CVE-2017-16667 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (backintime), 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 15, ignored 2, needed 2, DNE 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-16667

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-16667

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
backintime_project backintime < 1.1.24 cpe:2.3:a:backintime_project:backintime:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2017-16667

cvelogic Threat Intelligence