RUSTSEC-2024-0006

    Dashboard / Vulnerabilities / RUSTSEC-2024-0006

    RUSTSEC-2024-0006

    Published: 21 Jan 2024Last Modified: 28 Oct 2025

    Summary: Multiple issues involving quote API

    Details: ## Issue 1: Failure to quote characters Affected versions of this crate allowed the bytes `{` and `\xa0` to appear unquoted and unescaped in command arguments. If the output of `quote` or `join` is passed to a shell, then what should be a single command argument could be interpreted as multiple arguments. This does not *directly* allow arbitrary command execution (you can't inject a command substitution or similar). But depending on the command you're running, being able to inject multiple arguments where only one is expected could lead to undesired consequences, potentially including arbitrary command execution. The flaw was corrected in version 1.2.1 by escaping additional characters. Updating to 1.3.0 is recommended, but 1.2.1 offers a more minimal fix if desired. Workaround: Check for the bytes `{` and `\xa0` in `quote`/`join` input or output. (Note: `{` is problematic because it is used for glob expansion. `\xa0` is problematic because it's treated as a word separator in [specific environments][solved-xa0].) ## Issue 2: Dangerous API w.r.t. nul bytes Version 1.3.0 deprecates the `quote` and `join` APIs in favor of `try_quote` and `try_join`, which behave the same except that they have `Result` return type, returning `Err` if the input contains nul bytes. Strings containing nul bytes generally cannot be used in Unix command arguments or environment variables, and most shells cannot handle nul bytes even internally. If you try to pass one anyway, then the results might be security-sensitive in uncommon scenarios. [More details here.][nul-bytes] Due to the low severity, the behavior of the original `quote` and `join` APIs has not changed; they continue to allow nuls. Workaround: Manually check for nul bytes in `quote`/`join` input or output. ## Issue 3: Lack of documentation for interactive shell risks The `quote` family of functions does not and cannot escape control characters. With non-interactive shells this is perfectly safe, as control characters have no special effect. But if you writing directly to the standard input of an interactive shell (or through a pty), then control characters [can cause misbehavior including arbitrary command injection.][control-characters] This is essentially unfixable, and has not been patched. But as of version 1.3.0, documentation has been added. Future versions of `shlex` may add API variants that avoid the issue at the cost of reduced portability. [solved-xa0]: https://docs.rs/shlex/latest/shlex/quoting_warning/index.html#solved-xa0 [nul-bytes]: https://docs.rs/shlex/latest/shlex/quoting_warning/index.html#nul-bytes [control-characters]: https://docs.rs/shlex/latest/shlex/quoting_warning/index.html#control-characters-interactive-contexts-only

    Affected packages

    Package

    Name: shlex

    Purl: pkg:cargo/shlex

    Affected ranges

    Type: SEMVER

    Events:

    Introduced- 0.0.0-0
    Fixed -1.3.0

    Affected versions

    Common Vulnerability Scoring System

    Attack Vector
    Network
    Adjacent
    Local
    Physical
    Privileges Required
    None
    Low
    High
    User Interaction
    None
    Required
    Scope
    Unchanged
    Changed
    Confidentiality
    None
    Low
    High
    Integrity
    None
    Low
    High
    Availability
    None
    Low
    High
    RUSTSEC-2024-0006 | CVE-DB