CVE-2022-45939

GNU Emacs through 28.2 allows attackers to execute commands via shell metacharacters in the name of a source-code file, because lib-src/etags.c uses the system C library function in its implementation of the ctags program. For example, a victim may use the "ctags *" command (suggested in the ctags documentation) in a situation where the current working directory has contents that depend on untrusted input.

Published: 2022-11-28 Last update: 2025-04-28 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2022-45939 is rated Low Risk (36.7/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.05%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2022-45939

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 2026-05-07 0.04% 0.05% +0.01%
2 2026-01-04 0.06% 0.04% -0.01%
3 2025-11-29 — 0.06% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-45939

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/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]
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/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 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-45939

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-45939

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2022-45939: 1 source package rows (emacs); 18 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 18, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2022-45939
debian not yet assigned CVE-2022-45939 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (emacs, xemacs21), 8 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 7, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-45939
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-45939
suse high CVE-2022-45939 severity important: SUSE including 48 source package names (emacs-22.3-42.9.1, emacs-24.3-25.9.1, …), 264 product×package rows across 49 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, SUSE Enterprise Storage 6, … (49 product lines)): Fixed 264. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-45939/
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-45939 medium priority: Ubuntu including 6 source packages (emacs, emacs23, emacs24, emacs25, xemacs21, xemacs21-packages), 60 status rows across 13 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 18, needs-triage 16, DNE 15, not-affected 6, released 5. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-45939

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-45939

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gnu emacs <= 28.2 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:emacs:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 36 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:36:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 37 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:37:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-45939

cvelogic Threat Intelligence