CVE-2020-36767
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in tinyfiledialogs allows shell metacharacters in dialog box titles, messages, and other input fields, potentially enabling command injection attacks. Applications using vulnerable versions of tinyfiledialogs to display user-controlled content are affected, which could lead to arbitrary code execution.
💻 Affected Systems
- tinyfiledialogs (also known as tiny file dialogs)
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Remote code execution with the privileges of the application, potentially leading to full system compromise if the application runs with elevated privileges.
Likely Case
Local privilege escalation or arbitrary command execution when malicious input is passed through dialog boxes in affected applications.
If Mitigated
Limited impact if input validation prevents shell metacharacters from reaching the vulnerable function, or if the application runs with minimal privileges.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires passing shell metacharacters through dialog functions. The vulnerability is well-documented in the GitHub issue references.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 3.8.0 and later
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/tinyfiledialogs/tinyfiledialogs
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Update tinyfiledialogs to version 3.8.0 or later. 2. Recompile any applications using the library. 3. Restart affected applications.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation
allImplement strict input validation to filter or escape shell metacharacters before passing data to tinyfiledialogs functions.
Application Sandboxing
allRun applications using tinyfiledialogs with minimal privileges and in restricted environments.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict input validation to filter shell metacharacters (;, &, |, $, `, etc.) from all user input passed to dialog functions.
- Run affected applications with reduced privileges and in isolated environments to limit potential damage from exploitation.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check if your application uses tinyfiledialogs version earlier than 3.8.0. Review code for calls to tinyfiledialogs functions with user-controlled input.Check Version:
Check library version in source code or build configuration. For compiled applications, check dependency manifests or use strings/grep on binaries.Verify Fix Applied:
Confirm tinyfiledialogs version is 3.8.0 or later. Test that shell metacharacters in dialog inputs no longer execute commands.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unexpected shell commands executed from application processes
- Application crashes or abnormal behavior when displaying dialogs
Network Indicators:
- Unusual outbound connections from applications using tinyfiledialogs
SIEM Query:
Process execution events where parent process is an application known to use tinyfiledialogs and command contains shell metacharacters