CVE-2021-41146

Description

qutebrowser is an open source keyboard-focused browser with a minimal GUI. Starting with qutebrowser v1.7.0, the Windows installer for qutebrowser registers a `qutebrowserurl:` URL handler. With certain applications, opening a specially crafted `qutebrowserurl:...` URL can lead to execution of qutebrowser commands, which in turn allows arbitrary code execution via commands such as `:spawn` or `:debug-pyeval`. Only Windows installs where qutebrowser is registered as URL handler are affected. The issue has been fixed in qutebrowser v2.4.0. The fix also adds additional hardening for potential similar issues on Linux (by adding the new --untrusted-args flag to the .desktop file), though no such vulnerabilities are known.

How to fix CVE-2021-41146

To remediate CVE-2021-41146, upgrade the affected package to a fixed version below.

• —upgrade to 2.4.0 or later
• —upgrade to 8f46ba3f6dc7b18375f7aa63c48a1fe461190430 or later

Is CVE-2021-41146 being exploited?

Low — EPSS is 0.7%, meaning exploitation activity has not been observed at scale.

Affected packages (2)

• >= 1.7.0, < 2.4.0
• from 0, < 8f46ba3f6dc7b18375f7aa63c48a1fe461190430 | from 0, < 1.8.0, >= 2.0.0, < 2.4.0

CVSS scores

References (5)

• ADVISORYnvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-41146
• PATCHgithub.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser
• WEBgithub.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/qutebrowser/PYSEC-2021-382.yaml
• WEBgithub.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/commit/8f46ba3f6dc7b18375f7aa63c48a1fe461190430