OS Command Injection in ctags - CVE-2022-4515

Detailed vulnerability description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary shell commands on the target system.

The vulnerability exists due to improper input validation when handling the tag filename passed via the "-o" option within the externalSortTags() function in sort.c. A remote attacker can trick the victim to pass a specially crafted filename or use a malicious configuration file and execute arbitrary OS commands on the target system.

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may result in complete compromise of vulnerable system.

How to mitigate CVE-2022-4515

Sources

• https://sourceforge.net/p/ctags/code/HEAD/tree/tags/ctags-5.8/sort.c#l56
• https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/12/msg00040.html