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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2026-96269 json

GNU Emacs 28.1 through 31.1 allows arbitrary code execution upon opening a file, because an untrusted value of read-symbol-shorthands affec…

published 2026-09-22 47 d ago modified 2026-09-24 45 d ago also EUVD-2026-84868

cvss
7.5
version 4.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.1%
EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 3%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

GNU Emacs 28.1 through 31.1 allows arbitrary code execution upon opening a file, because an untrusted value of read-symbol-shorthands affects the intern and unintern functions. This affects the default configuration; no particular user settings are required to trigger it.

Patch / fix

  • emacs Debian 13 1:30.1+1-6+deb13u1
  • emacs Debian 14 1:30.2+1-11

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-96269

  • emacs AlmaLinux 10 1:29.4-14.el10_2.4
  • emacs-nw AlmaLinux 10 1:29.4-14.el10_2.4
  • emacs-lucid AlmaLinux 10 1:29.4-14.el10_2.4
  • emacs-common AlmaLinux 10 1:29.4-14.el10_2.4
  • emacs-filesystem AlmaLinux 10 1:29.4-14.el10_2.4

almalinux advisories ALSA-2026:90887

  • emacs Rocky Linux 10 1:29.4-14.el10_2.4

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2026:90887

  • emacs Azure Linux 3.0 29.4-7

azure linux advisories AZL-103410

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

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-2026-96269 updated cvss 7.8

emacs: GNU Emacs: Arbitrary code execution upon opening a file

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 10) emacs 29.4-14.el10_2.4, emacs-nw 29.4-14.el10_2.4, emacs-lucid 29.4-14.el10_2.4, emacs-common 29.4-14.el10_2.4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 10) emacs 29.4-14.el10_2.4, emacs-filesystem 29.4-14.el10_2.4
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:90887
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 emacs, emacs-el, emacs-nox, emacs-common Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 emacs, emacs-el, emacs-nox, emacs-common, emacs-terminal, emacs-filesystem Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 emacs, emacs-nox, emacs-lucid, emacs-common, emacs-terminal, emacs-filesystem Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 emacs, emacs-nox, emacs-lucid, emacs-common, emacs-filesystem
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
47 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.14% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 3% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 4.0 7.5 CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CNA 4.0 7.5 CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Affected products

  • GNU Emacs

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-829 Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control Sphere

References

Sources

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.