TIOCLINUX can send commands outside sandbox if running on a virtual console

published 2023-03-16 3 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2023-31825

cvss: 10.0; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.9%; EPSS 0.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 59%
public exploits: 0; none known

Flatpak is a system for building, distributing, and running sandboxed desktop applications on Linux. Versions prior to 1.10.8, 1.12.8, 1.14.4, and 1.15.4 contain a vulnerability similar to CVE-2017-5226, but using the `TIOCLINUX` ioctl command instead of `TIOCSTI`. If a Flatpak app is run on a Linux virtual console such as `/dev/tty1`, it can copy text from the virtual console and paste it into the command buffer, from which the command might be run after the Flatpak app has exited. Ordinary graphical terminal emulators like xterm, gnome-terminal and Konsole are unaffected. This vulnerability is specific to the Linux virtual consoles `/dev/tty1`, `/dev/tty2` and so on. A patch is available in versions 1.10.8, 1.12.8, 1.14.4, and 1.15.4. As a workaround, don't run Flatpak on a Linux virtual console. Flatpak is primarily designed to be used in a Wayland or X11 graphical environment.

Patch / fix

fixed in 1 distros 6 links 2

flatpak flatpak 1.10.8, 1.12.8, 1.14.4, 1.15.4

debian red hat suse opensuse almalinux rocky linux

flatpak Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1.14.4-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-28100

flatpak RHEL 8 1.10.8-1.el8
flatpak-libs RHEL 8 1.10.8-1.el8
flatpak-selinux RHEL 8 1.10.8-1.el8
flatpak-session-helper RHEL 8 1.10.8-1.el8
flatpak RHEL 9 1.12.8-1.el9
flatpak-libs RHEL 9 1.12.8-1.el9
flatpak-selinux RHEL 9 1.12.8-1.el9
flatpak-session-helper RHEL 9 1.12.8-1.el9

red hat advisories RHSA-2023:7038 RHSA-2023:6518

flatpak SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP4, openSUSE Leap 15.4 1.12.8-150400.3.3.1
flatpak SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES for SAP 15 SP2, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS +7 more 1.10.8-150200.4.15.1
flatpak SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 1.4.2-3.3.1
flatpak SLES for SAP 15 SP1, SLES 15 SP1-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP1-LTSS 1.2.3-150100.4.11.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2023:1715-1 SUSE-SU-2023:1714-1 SUSE-SU-2023:1713-1 SUSE-SU-2023:1712-1

flatpak openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.14.4-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:12800-1

flatpak AlmaLinux 8 1.10.8-1.el8
flatpak-libs AlmaLinux 8 1.10.8-1.el8
flatpak-selinux AlmaLinux 8 1.10.8-1.el8
flatpak-session-helper AlmaLinux 8 1.10.8-1.el8
flatpak AlmaLinux 9 1.12.8-1.el9
flatpak-libs AlmaLinux 9 1.12.8-1.el9
flatpak-selinux AlmaLinux 9 1.12.8-1.el9
flatpak-session-helper AlmaLinux 9 1.12.8-1.el9

almalinux advisories ALSA-2023:7038 ALSA-2023:6518

flatpak Rocky Linux 9 1.12.8-1.el9

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2023:6518

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2023-28100 updated 2026-11-07 cvss 6.5

flatpak: TIOCLINUX can send commands outside sandbox if running on a virtual console

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 flatpak, flatpak-libs, flatpak-builder
affected: workaround, no fix planned “Don't run Flatpak on a Linux virtual console. Flatpak is primarily designed to be used in a Wayland or X11 graphical environment.”
Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) flatpak 1.10.8-1.el8, flatpak-session-helper 1.10.8-1.el8
fixed: vendor fix “Don't run Flatpak on a Linux virtual console. Flatpak is primarily designed to be used in a Wayland or X11 graphical environment.” RHSA-2023:7038
Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) flatpak 1.12.8-1.el9, flatpak-session-helper 1.12.8-1.el9
fixed: vendor fix “Don't run Flatpak on a Linux virtual console. Flatpak is primarily designed to be used in a Wayland or X11 graphical environment.” RHSA-2023:6518
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) flatpak 1.10.8-1.el8, flatpak-libs 1.10.8-1.el8, flatpak-selinux 1.10.8-1.el8, flatpak-session-helper 1.10.8-1.el8
fixed: vendor fix “Don't run Flatpak on a Linux virtual console. Flatpak is primarily designed to be used in a Wayland or X11 graphical environment.” RHSA-2023:7038
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) flatpak 1.12.8-1.el9, flatpak-libs 1.12.8-1.el9, flatpak-selinux 1.12.8-1.el9, flatpak-session-helper 1.12.8-1.el9
fixed: vendor fix “Don't run Flatpak on a Linux virtual console. Flatpak is primarily designed to be used in a Wayland or X11 graphical environment.” RHSA-2023:6518

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none
Automatable: yes
Technical impact: total
Assessed: 2 y ago (2024-10-15)

Exploit prediction

0.88% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 59% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.1	10.0	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	3.1	6.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

flatpak flatpak

Classification

Weakness

CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

References

github.com /flatpak/flatpak/commit/8e63de9a7d3124f91140fc74f8ca9ed73ed53be9
patch
github.com /flatpak/flatpak/security/advisories/GHSA-7qpw-3vjv-xrqp
patch, vendor-advisory
marc.info /?l=oss-security&m=167879021709955&w=2
mailing-list
security.gentoo.org /glsa/202312-12

Sources

CVE List CVE-2023-28100
NVD CVE-2023-28100

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary