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
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. Confidence: HIGH.
- Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV)
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 8.8
- EG Score
- 9.0(high)
- EG Risk
- 81(Attend)EG Risk 81/100SSVC: Attend
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).
How it’s computedSeverity90% × 45%Exploitation100% × 40%Automatability0% × 15%Action: Remediate soon — notable exploitation risk. - EPSS
- 99.9%
- KEV
- ⚠ Exploited
Published
September 30, 2014
Last Modified
April 22, 2026
Advisory Details (5)
Auto-updated May 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 | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | bash-static (4.3-7ubuntu1.5) @ trusty | 2026-07-22 | 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.
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 69× in last 7d / 326× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. 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. Most recent first.
Showing the most recent 100 of 636 total refreshes for this CVE.
- 2026-07-23 01:13 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-23 00:17 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 21:55 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 21:01 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-22 19:40 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-07-22 17:06 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-22 13:12 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-22 09:19 UTCGHSA enrichment
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- 2026-07-22 01:20 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-22 01:20 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-21 18:18 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-21 14:37 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-07-21 14:24 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-21 10:30 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-21 06:37 UTCGHSA enrichment
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- 2026-07-20 22:48 UTCVendor advisory
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- 2026-07-20 18:56 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-20 18:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-20 15:03 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-20 11:07 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-20 11:07 UTCGHSA enrichment
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- 2026-07-20 07:14 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-20 03:21 UTCVendor advisory
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- 2026-07-19 23:26 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-19 23:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-19 19:33 UTCVendor advisory
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- 2026-07-19 15:40 UTCVendor advisory
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- 2026-07-19 11:47 UTCVendor advisory
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- 2026-07-19 07:54 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-19 07:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-19 04:01 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-19 04:01 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-19 00:08 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-18 20:14 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-18 20:14 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-18 16:20 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-18 16:20 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-18 12:27 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-18 12:27 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-18 08:34 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-18 08:34 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-18 04:40 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-18 04:40 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-18 00:47 UTCVendor advisory
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- 2026-07-17 20:54 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-17 20:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-17 17:01 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-17 13:08 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-17 09:15 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-17 09:15 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-17 05:22 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-17 01:28 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-16 21:35 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-16 21:35 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-16 17:42 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-16 17:42 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-16 17:04 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-07-16 13:49 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-16 09:56 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-16 09:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-16 06:02 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-16 06:02 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-16 02:09 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-16 02:09 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-15 22:16 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-15 22:16 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-15 18:22 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-15 16:49 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-07-15 15:04 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-07-15 14:28 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-15 14:28 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-15 10:35 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-15 06:40 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-15 06:40 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-15 02:44 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-15 02:44 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-14 22:51 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-14 22:51 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-14 18:57 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-14 18:05 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-07-14 15:02 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-14 11:07 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-14 07:14 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-14 03:22 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-13 23:29 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-13 23:29 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-13 19:36 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-13 19:36 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-13 17:07 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-07-13 15:40 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-13 15:40 UTCGHSA enrichment
Publicly available exploits
(8 references)Working exploit code is in the public domain (3 Metasploit modules) (5 Exploit-DB entries). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.
- Exploit-DBEDB-39887First seen Jun 6, 2016
Sun Secure Global Desktop and Oracle Global Desktop 4.61.915 - Command Injection (Shellshock)
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-39568First seen Mar 16, 2016
Cisco UCS Manager 2.1(1b) - Remote Command Injection (Shellshock)
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-34900✓ verifiedFirst seen Oct 6, 2014
Apache mod_cgi - 'Shellshock' Remote Command Injection
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-34860First seen Oct 2, 2014
GNU bash 4.3.11 - Environment Variable dhclient
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-36933✓ verifiedFirst seen Sep 29, 2014
dhclient 4.1 - Bash Environment Variable Command Injection (Shellshock)
Open source ↗ - Metasploitexploit/multi/http/apache_mod_cgi_bash_env_exec✓ verifiedFirst seen Sep 24, 2014
Apache mod_cgi Bash Environment Variable Code Injection (Shellshock)
Open source ↗ - Metasploitexploit/multi/http/cups_bash_env_exec✓ verifiedFirst seen Sep 24, 2014
CUPS Filter Bash Environment Variable Code Injection (Shellshock)
Open source ↗ - Metasploitauxiliary/scanner/http/apache_mod_cgi_bash_env✓ verifiedFirst seen Sep 24, 2014
Apache mod_cgi Bash Environment Variable Injection (Shellshock) Scanner
Open source ↗
Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)
Same vendor
10 shownubuntu
Same CWE
10 shownCWE-78
Frequently asked(6)
What is CVE-2014-6278?
When was CVE-2014-6278 disclosed?
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
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