CVE-2022-47583
📋 TL;DR
CVE-2022-47583 is a terminal character injection vulnerability in Mintty terminal emulator that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code by sending specially crafted ANSI escape sequences. This affects users running vulnerable versions of Mintty on Windows systems, particularly when viewing untrusted content or connecting to untrusted servers.
💻 Affected Systems
- Mintty
📦 What is this software?
Mintty by Mintty Project
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Remote code execution with full system compromise, allowing attackers to install malware, steal data, or pivot to other systems.
Likely Case
Local privilege escalation or code execution when users view malicious files or connect to compromised servers via SSH/Telnet.
If Mitigated
Limited impact if proper network segmentation and least privilege principles are followed, though code execution remains possible.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires tricking users into viewing malicious content or connecting to malicious servers. No authentication needed once user interacts with malicious input.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 3.6.3
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/mintty/mintty/releases/tag/3.6.3
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Download Mintty 3.6.3 or later from GitHub releases. 2. Replace existing mintty.exe with new version. 3. Restart all Mintty terminal sessions.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable ANSI escape sequence processing
allPrevents malicious sequences from being interpreted by disabling certain terminal features
set TERM=dumb
export TERM=dumb
Use alternative terminal
windowsTemporarily switch to Windows Terminal or other secure terminal emulator
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict network access to only trusted servers and avoid viewing untrusted files in Mintty
- Implement application whitelisting to prevent execution of unauthorized binaries from terminal
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Mintty version: mintty --version. If version is below 3.6.3, system is vulnerable.Check Version:
mintty --versionVerify Fix Applied:
After updating, run mintty --version and confirm version is 3.6.3 or higher.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual terminal escape sequences in logs
- Suspicious command execution from terminal sessions
Network Indicators:
- Malformed ANSI sequences in network traffic to terminal services
SIEM Query:
Process creation from mintty.exe with unusual parent processes or command line arguments