CVE-2023-28617: n/a
Source CVE Database V5
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.8 High.
Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC
- EPSS
- 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 40% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
- Affects
- Org Mode through 9.6.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 19 Mar 2023
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors
A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-26.
What to do
AI-suggested
1. Monitor official GNU Emacs and Org Mode repositories for patches addressing CVE-2023-28617 and apply updates promptly once available. 2. Until patches are released, avoid executing LaTeX code blocks in Org Mode on files or directories with untrusted or suspicious names containing shell metacharacters. 3. Implement strict local user permissions to limit the ability of unprivileged users to execute code or modify files used by Org Mode. 4. Educate users about the risks of opening or executing code blocks from untrusted sources, emphasizing caution with file and directory names. 5. Use application whitelisting or sandboxing techniques to restrict the execution environment of Emacs and its subprocesses. 6. Employ monitoring and logging to detect unusual command executions or shell activity originating from Emacs processes. 7. Consider disabling org-babel LaTeX execution if it is not essential to reduce the attack surface.
Description
org-babel-execute:latex in ob-latex.el in Org Mode through 9.6.1 for GNU Emacs allows attackers to execute arbitrary commands via a file name or directory name that contains shell metacharacters.
References
- list.orgmode.org/tencent_04CF842704737012CCBCD63CD654DD41CA0A%40qq.com/T/ (opens in a new tab)
- git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs/org-mode.git/commit/?id=8f8ec2ccf3f5ef8f38d68ec84a7e4739c45db485 (opens in a new tab)
- git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs/org-mode.git/commit/?id=a8006ea580ed74f27f974d60b598143b04ad1741 (opens in a new tab)
- lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/05/msg00008.html (opens in a new tab)
- lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/10/msg00019.html (opens in a new tab)
- lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/02/msg00033.html (opens in a new tab)