CVE-2025-12121 | CVE-2025-12121

Exp

Lite XL versions 2.1.8 and prior contain a vulnerability in the system.exec function, which allowed arbitrary command execution through unsanitized shell command construction. This function was used in project directory launching (core.lua), drag-and-drop file handling (rootview.lua), and the “open in system” command in the treeview plugin (treeview.lua). If an attacker could influence input to system.exec, they might execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the Lite XL process.

Published: 2025-11-20 Last update: 2025-12-10 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2025-12121 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). 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-2025-12121

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-12121

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 2025-11-21 — 0.02% —

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-12121

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.3 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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.
 1.3 5.9 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-12121

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-12121

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2025-12121: 1 source package rows (lite-xl); 10 state rows across 3 repos (3.22-community, 3.23-community, edge-community); fixed 5, open 5. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2025-12121
suse high — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-12121/

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-12121

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
lite-xl lite_xl <= 2.1.8 cpe:2.3:a:lite-xl:lite_xl:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-12121

URL Tags
https://github.com/lite-xl/lite-xl/pull/2163 Patch
https://kb.cert.org/vuls/id/579478 Exploit Patch Third Party Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence