CVE-2014-6278

CRITICALNVD 8.89.0
EchelonGraph scoreHIGH confidence

“▲” 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.

Triggered by: CISA KEV (actively exploited)
Sources: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, EPSS, GitHub Security Advisory, NVD CVSS v3
Trending — 5 sources updated this weekExploited in the wild

Also known asEUVD-2014-6163 (ENISA EUVD) · GHSA-6493-28fj-f93w (GitHub Security Advisories)Source: ENISA EUVD

9.0EG
EchelonGraph verdictPatch nowTreat as an emergency — this is being exploited.
  • 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
CISA-KEV: ExploitedEPSS PROB: 99.7%CVSS: 8.8Exploit: Metasploit · Exploit-DB (verified) · other public PoCExposed services: Not assessed

A fix is available — apply it.

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.

CVSS v3
8.8
EG Score
9.0CRITICALhigh confidence
EG Risk
80
EG 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
⚠️ Actively exploited (CISA KEV, CISA Vulnrichment). Patch available.
Web page

'[security bulletin] HPSBHF03125 rev.1 - HP Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) running Bash Shell, Remot' - MARC

http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=141345648114150&w=2
Web page

'[security bulletin] HPSBGN03138 rev.1 - HP Operations Analytics running Bash Shell, Remote Code Exec' - MARC

http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=141330468527613&w=2
Web page🟡 PoC Available

lcamtuf'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.html
Web page

lcamtuf'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.html
Web page

JVN#55667175: QNAP QTS vulnerable to OS command injection

http://jvn.jp/en/jp/JVN55667175/index.html

Patch Availability(1)

Vendor / EcosystemFix (by version range) / PatchReleasedSource
ubuntubash-static (4.3-7ubuntu1.5) @ trusty2026-10-29ubuntu

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)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
bash—
  • every version up to 4.3-9.2: fixed in 4.3-9.2
—
Debian:12(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
bash—
  • every version up to 4.3-9.2: fixed in 4.3-9.2
—
Debian:13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
bash—
  • every version up to 4.3-9.2: fixed in 4.3-9.2
—
Debian:14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
bash—
  • every version up to 4.3-9.2: fixed in 4.3-9.2
—

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.

  1. 2026-11-02 04:26 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-11-02 04:26 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  3. 2026-11-02 04:25 UTCOSV refresh
  4. 2026-11-01 06:34 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-11-01 06:34 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  6. 2026-10-31 08:42 UTCEG score recompute
  7. 2026-10-31 08:42 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  8. 2026-10-30 10:51 UTCEG score recompute
  9. 2026-10-30 10:51 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  10. 2026-10-29 12:59 UTCEG score recompute
  11. 2026-10-29 12:59 UTCVendor advisory
  12. 2026-10-29 12:59 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  13. 2026-10-28 15:08 UTCVendor advisory
  14. 2026-10-28 15:08 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  15. 2026-10-27 17:16 UTCEG score recompute
  16. 2026-10-27 17:16 UTCVendor advisory
  17. 2026-10-27 17:16 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  18. 2026-10-27 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 99.7% · 99th percentile
  19. 2026-10-26 19:25 UTCEG score recompute
  20. 2026-10-26 19:24 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  21. 2026-10-25 21:30 UTCVendor advisory
  22. 2026-10-25 21:30 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  23. 2026-10-25 20:00 UTCEG score recompute
  24. 2026-10-25 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 99.7% · 99th percentile
  25. 2026-10-24 23:38 UTCEG score recompute
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-10-24 23:38 UTCVendor advisory
  2. 2026-10-24 23:38 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  3. 2026-10-24 01:47 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-10-24 01:47 UTCVendor advisory
  5. 2026-10-24 01:47 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  6. 2026-10-23 03:56 UTCEG score recompute
  7. 2026-10-23 03:56 UTCVendor advisory
  8. 2026-10-23 03:56 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  9. 2026-10-22 06:04 UTCEG score recompute
  10. 2026-10-22 06:03 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  11. 2026-10-21 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 99.6% · 99th percentile
  12. 2026-10-21 08:10 UTCEG score recompute
  13. 2026-10-21 08:10 UTCVendor advisory
  14. 2026-10-21 08:10 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  15. 2026-10-20 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 99.6% · 99th percentile
  16. 2026-10-20 10:19 UTCEG score recompute
  17. 2026-10-20 10:19 UTCVendor advisory
  18. 2026-10-20 10:19 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  19. 2026-10-19 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 99.6% · 99th percentile
  20. 2026-10-19 12:27 UTCEG score recompute
  21. 2026-10-19 12:27 UTCVendor advisory
  22. 2026-10-19 12:27 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  23. 2026-10-18 14:34 UTCVendor advisory
  24. 2026-10-18 14:34 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  25. 2026-10-18 11:09 UTCEG score recompute
  26. 2026-10-17 16:41 UTCEG score recompute
  27. 2026-10-17 16:41 UTCVendor advisory
  28. 2026-10-17 16:41 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  29. 2026-10-16 18:50 UTCEG score recompute
  30. 2026-10-16 18:50 UTCVendor advisory
  31. 2026-10-16 18:50 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  32. 2026-10-15 20:57 UTCEG score recompute
  33. 2026-10-15 20:56 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  34. 2026-10-14 23:04 UTCEG score recompute
  35. 2026-10-14 23:03 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  36. 2026-10-14 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 99.7% · 99th percentile
  37. 2026-10-14 01:11 UTCEG score recompute
  38. 2026-10-14 01:11 UTCVendor advisory
  39. 2026-10-14 01:11 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  40. 2026-10-13 03:18 UTCVendor advisory
  41. 2026-10-13 03:18 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  42. 2026-10-12 21:15 UTCEG score recompute
  43. 2026-10-12 05:26 UTCVendor advisory
  44. 2026-10-12 05:26 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  45. 2026-10-12 01:32 UTCVendor advisory
  46. 2026-10-12 01:32 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  47. 2026-10-11 21:39 UTCEG score recompute
  48. 2026-10-11 21:39 UTCVendor advisory
  49. 2026-10-11 21:39 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  50. 2026-10-11 17:45 UTCEG score recompute
  51. 2026-10-11 17:45 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  52. 2026-10-11 13:49 UTCEG score recompute
  53. 2026-10-11 13:49 UTCVendor advisory
  54. 2026-10-11 13:49 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  55. 2026-10-11 09:55 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  56. 2026-10-11 06:02 UTCVendor advisory
  57. 2026-10-11 06:02 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  58. 2026-10-11 02:09 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  59. 2026-10-10 22:15 UTCEG score recompute
  60. 2026-10-10 22:15 UTCVendor advisory
  61. 2026-10-10 22:15 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  62. 2026-10-10 19:54 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 99.7% · 99th percentile
  63. 2026-10-10 18:22 UTCVendor advisory
  64. 2026-10-10 18:22 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  65. 2026-10-10 14:29 UTCVendor advisory
  66. 2026-10-10 14:29 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  67. 2026-10-10 10:36 UTCVendor advisory
  68. 2026-10-10 10:36 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  69. 2026-10-10 06:40 UTCVendor advisory
  70. 2026-10-10 06:39 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  71. 2026-10-10 02:46 UTCVendor advisory
  72. 2026-10-10 02:46 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  73. 2026-10-09 22:52 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-6493-28fj-f93w · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  74. 2026-10-09 18:59 UTCVendor advisory
  75. 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✓ verified
    Published Oct 28, 2014

    CUPS Filter Bash Environment Variable Code Injection (Shellshock)

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-34900✓ verified
    Published Oct 6, 2014

    Apache mod_cgi - 'Shellshock' Remote Command Injection

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-36933✓ verified
    Published Sep 29, 2014

    dhclient 4.1 - Bash Environment Variable Command Injection (Shellshock)

    Open source ↗
  • Metasploitexploit/multi/http/apache_mod_cgi_bash_env_exec✓ verified
    Published Sep 26, 2014

    Apache mod_cgi Bash Environment Variable Code Injection (Shellshock)

    Open source ↗
  • Metasploitauxiliary/scanner/http/apache_mod_cgi_bash_env✓ verified
    Published Sep 25, 2014

    Apache mod_cgi Bash Environment Variable Injection (Shellshock) Scanner

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-39887
    Published Jun 6, 2016

    Sun Secure Global Desktop and Oracle Global Desktop 4.61.915 - Command Injection (Shellshock)

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-39568
    Published Mar 16, 2016

    Cisco UCS Manager 2.1(1b) - Remote Command Injection (Shellshock)

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-34860
    Published Oct 2, 2014

    GNU bash 4.3.11 - Environment Variable dhclient

    Open source ↗

Frequently asked(6)

What is CVE-2014-6278?
CVE-2014-6278 is a critical-severity vulnerability; its CVE record was published on September 30, 2014. 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…
When was CVE-2014-6278 made public?
CVE-2014-6278 was made public on September 29, 2014: that is the date its CVE record's CNA, Debian GNU/Linux, gives for when the vulnerability was made public. The CVE record itself was published on September 30, 2014. EchelonGraph's copy of the record carries a last-modified date of April 22, 2026; the record at its source may have been updated since.
Is CVE-2014-6278 actively exploited?
Yes. CISA added CVE-2014-6278 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on October 2, 2025, affecting GNU GNU Bash. KEV listing indicates confirmed exploitation in the wild; this CVE warrants immediate attention. A fix is available. Apply it.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2014-6278?
CVE-2014-6278 has a CVSS v3 base score of 8.8 (NVD). EchelonGraph synthesises NVD + CISA KEV + FIRST EPSS + GHSA into a combined EG score of 9.0 (CRITICAL).
Which products are affected by CVE-2014-6278?
CVE-2014-6278 affects GNU GNU Bash. The affected packages EchelonGraph has on record, with version ranges, are listed in the Affected Packages section of this page.
How do I remediate CVE-2014-6278?
A fix for CVE-2014-6278 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory.

Dependency Blast Radius

See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2014-6278

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