GNU Bash through 4.3 bash43-026 does not properly parse function definitions in the values of environment variables, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via a crafted environment, as demonstrated by vectors involving the ForceCommand feature in OpenSSH sshd, the mod_cgi and mod_cgid modules in the Apache HTTP Server, scripts executed by unspecified DHCP clients, and other situations in which setting the environment occurs across a privilege boundary from Bash execution. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2014-6271, CVE-2014-7169, and CVE-2014-6277.
CVE-2014-6278
“▲” beside the score: it is higher than NVD's CVSS score.
Score elevated to 9.0 because this CVE is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2025-10-02), indicating real-world exploitation has been confirmed by US federal agencies. NVD baseline CVSS 8.8 retained for reference. The 9.0 is the floor for confirmed exploitation, not an impact rating: this CVE's impact severity (EG Severity) is CVSS 8.8 HIGH under GitHub Security Advisory CVSS. Confidence: HIGH.
Also known asEUVD-2014-6163 (ENISA EUVD) · GHSA-6493-28fj-f93w (GitHub Security Advisories)Source: ENISA EUVD
- Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV) — the reason this is sooner than the SSVC decision on this page at low or medium mission impact
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 8.8
- EG Score
- 9.0CRITICALhigh confidence
- EG Risk
- 80EG Risk 80/100
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score. It fuses impact severity (EG Severity, the CVSS base score, never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score) with real-world exploitation and automatability, under weights EchelonGraph set by hand, so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner.
How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)Severity88% × 45%Impact severity (EG Severity): CVSS 8.8 of 10. Never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score.Exploitation100% × 40%Fixed at 100% for a CISA KEV listing: EchelonGraph's rule.Automatability0% × 15%CISA's SSVC Automatable value: no (Vulnrichment).SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at low, Attend at medium and Act at high mission impact.Exploitation active (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low, sooner than that at medium and as soon as possible at high mission impact. - EPSS PROB
- 99.7%
- EPSS %ILE
- 99th
- KEV
- ⚠ Exploited
What the EG score is made of (scorer v4.0: the three questions the 0–10 score mixes, published apart · methodology)
The EG score (9.0): severity, escalated by confirmed exploitation. This CVE's 9.0 is the CISA KEV floor for confirmed exploitation, not an impact rating: its impact severity (EG Severity) is CVSS 8.8 HIGH.
- EG Severity
- 8.8 HIGHCVSS-B, impact only: no KEV listing, EPSS or EG-KEV tier raises it.GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
- EG Likelihood
- 99.7% within 30 daysSource: FIRST EPSS (model v2026.06.15, score date 2026-11-01). FIRST's exploitation probability, not an EchelonGraph model.
- Confirmed exploitation
- CISA KEV and EG-KEV Tier 1 (exploited in the wild)Reported apart from the likelihood: an observed fact, not a probability.
- EG Priority
- SSVC Attend at medium mission impactTrack at low, Attend at medium and Act at high mission impact.CISA BOD 26-04: 3 days & forensic triage if the affected system is publicly exposed; 14 days if it is not.Each input and its source, and whom BOD 26-04 binds: the SSVC and BOD 26-04 blocks below.
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at low, Attend at medium and Act at high mission impact.
A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low, sooner than that at medium and as soon as possible at high mission impact.
Exploitation active (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table
BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)3 days & forensic triage if the affected system is publicly exposed; 14 days if it is not.
The score's inputs: In CISA KEV yes (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it
CISA required action“Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.”
Quoted verbatim from CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. CISA directs it at US federal civilian executive branch agencies under Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 26-04, which replaced BOD 22-01 on 10 June 2026; it is not EchelonGraph's advice. CISA's notes: https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvisories/0/23467 · https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20140926-bash · https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/security-bulletin-update-vulnerabilities-bash-affect-aix-toolbox-linux-applications-cve-2014-6271-cve-2014-6277-cve-2014-6278-cve-2014-7169-cve-2014-7186-and-cve-2014-7187 · https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-6278
Published
September 30, 2014
Last Modified
April 22, 2026
Advisory Details (5)
Auto-updated Nov 2, 2026'[security bulletin] HPSBHF03125 rev.1 - HP Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) running Bash Shell, Remot' - MARC
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=141345648114150&w=2'[security bulletin] HPSBGN03138 rev.1 - HP Operations Analytics running Bash Shell, Remote Code Exec' - MARC
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=141330468527613&w=2lcamtuf's old blog: Bash bug: the other two RCEs, or how we chipped away at the original fix (CVE-2014-6277 and '78)
http://lcamtuf.blogspot.com/2014/10/bash-bug-how-we-finally-cracked.htmllcamtuf's old blog: Bash bug: apply Florian's patch now (CVE-2014-6277 and CVE-2014-6278)
http://lcamtuf.blogspot.com/2014/09/bash-bug-apply-unofficial-patch-now.htmlJVN#55667175: QNAP QTS vulnerable to OS command injection
http://jvn.jp/en/jp/JVN55667175/index.htmlPatch Availability(1)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fix (by version range) / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | bash-static (4.3-7ubuntu1.5) @ trusty | 2026-10-29 | ubuntu |
Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.
Affected Packages
(4 across 4 ecosystems)
Debian:11(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| bash | — |
| — |
Debian:12(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| bash | — |
| — |
Debian:13(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| bash | — |
| — |
Debian:14(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| bash | — |
| — |
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
All Vendor Advisories
(1)
Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 20× in last 7d / 169× in last 30d)
Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.
Showing the most recent 100 of 1,628 refreshes on record for this CVE.
A repeat, a row identical to one the same pipeline wrote less than 10 seconds earlier, is not a separate refresh and is not counted. None are among the latest 100 rows. The 1,528 oldest rows on record are not shown and were not checked, so the counts can still include repeats.
- 2026-11-02 04:26 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-11-02 04:26 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-11-02 04:25 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-11-01 06:34 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-11-01 06:34 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-31 08:42 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-31 08:42 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-30 10:51 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-30 10:51 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-29 12:59 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-29 12:59 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-29 12:59 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-28 15:08 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-28 15:08 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-27 17:16 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-27 17:16 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-27 17:16 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-27 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 99.7% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-26 19:25 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-26 19:24 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-25 21:30 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-25 21:30 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-25 20:00 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-25 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 99.7% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-24 23:38 UTCEG score recompute
Show 75 moreShow fewer
- 2026-10-24 23:38 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-24 23:38 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-24 01:47 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-24 01:47 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-24 01:47 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-23 03:56 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-23 03:56 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-23 03:56 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-22 06:04 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-22 06:03 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-21 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 99.6% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-21 08:10 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-21 08:10 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-21 08:10 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-20 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 99.6% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-20 10:19 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-20 10:19 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-20 10:19 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-19 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 99.6% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-19 12:27 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-19 12:27 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-19 12:27 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-18 14:34 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-18 14:34 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-18 11:09 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-17 16:41 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-17 16:41 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-17 16:41 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-16 18:50 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-16 18:50 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-16 18:50 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-15 20:57 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-15 20:56 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-14 23:04 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-14 23:03 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-14 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 99.7% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-14 01:11 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-14 01:11 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-14 01:11 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-13 03:18 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-13 03:18 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-12 21:15 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-12 05:26 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-12 05:26 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-12 01:32 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-12 01:32 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-11 21:39 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-11 21:39 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-11 21:39 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-11 17:45 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-11 17:45 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-11 13:49 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-11 13:49 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-11 13:49 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-11 09:55 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-11 06:02 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-11 06:02 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-11 02:09 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-10 22:15 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-10 22:15 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-10 22:15 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-10 19:54 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 99.7% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-10 18:22 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-10 18:22 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-10 14:29 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-10 14:29 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-10 10:36 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-10 10:36 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-10 06:40 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-10 06:39 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-10 02:46 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-10 02:46 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-09 22:52 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
- 2026-10-09 18:59 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-09 18:59 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
Publicly available exploits
(8 references)Public exploit code is referenced for this CVE (3 Metasploit modules, 5 Exploit-DB entries). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly.
- Metasploitexploit/multi/http/cups_bash_env_exec✓ verifiedPublished Oct 28, 2014
CUPS Filter Bash Environment Variable Code Injection (Shellshock)
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-34900✓ verifiedPublished Oct 6, 2014
Apache mod_cgi - 'Shellshock' Remote Command Injection
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-36933✓ verifiedPublished Sep 29, 2014
dhclient 4.1 - Bash Environment Variable Command Injection (Shellshock)
Open source ↗ - Metasploitexploit/multi/http/apache_mod_cgi_bash_env_exec✓ verifiedPublished Sep 26, 2014
Apache mod_cgi Bash Environment Variable Code Injection (Shellshock)
Open source ↗ - Metasploitauxiliary/scanner/http/apache_mod_cgi_bash_env✓ verifiedPublished Sep 25, 2014
Apache mod_cgi Bash Environment Variable Injection (Shellshock) Scanner
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-39887Published Jun 6, 2016
Sun Secure Global Desktop and Oracle Global Desktop 4.61.915 - Command Injection (Shellshock)
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-39568Published Mar 16, 2016
Cisco UCS Manager 2.1(1b) - Remote Command Injection (Shellshock)
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-34860Published Oct 2, 2014
GNU bash 4.3.11 - Environment Variable dhclient
Open source ↗
Related CVEs(same product + same vendor + same CWE)
Same product
10 shownDebian:11:bash
- CVE-2014-7187EG 10.0EPSS p99HIGH
- CVE-2014-7186EG 10.0EPSS p99HIGH
- CVE-2014-6277EG 10.0EPSS p99HIGH
- CVE-2022-3715NVD 7.8EG 9.8CRITICAL
- CVE-2014-7169EG 9.8 KEVEPSS p100CRITICAL
- CVE-2014-6271EG 9.8 KEVEPSS p100CRITICAL
- CVE-2016-7543EG 8.4HIGH
- CVE-2019-18276EG 7.8HIGH
- CVE-2012-6711NVD 7.0EG 7.8HIGH
- CVE-2019-9924EG 7.8HIGH
Frequently asked(6)
What is CVE-2014-6278?
When was CVE-2014-6278 made public?
Is CVE-2014-6278 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2014-6278?
Which products are affected by CVE-2014-6278?
How do I remediate CVE-2014-6278?
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2014-6278
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2014-6278?
EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.