In elisp-mode.el in GNU Emacs before 30.1, a user who chooses to invoke elisp-completion-at-point (for code completion) on untrusted Emacs Lisp source code can trigger unsafe Lisp macro expansion that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code. (This unsafe expansion also occurs if a user chooses to enable on-the-fly diagnosis that byte compiles untrusted Emacs Lisp source code.)
CVE-2024-53920
Score 9.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: CRITICAL) published 2024-11-27. NVD baseline CVSS 7.8; sources differ by 2.0.
- High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 7.8
- EG Score
- 9.8(medium)
- EG Risk
- 75(Attend)EG Risk 75/100SSVC: 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 computedSeverity98% × 45%Exploitation40% × 40%Automatability100% × 15%Action: Remediate soon — notable exploitation risk. - EPSS
- 41.4%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
November 27, 2024
Last Modified
November 3, 2025
References (7)
- cve@mitrehttps://eshelyaron.com/posts/2024-11-27-emacs-aritrary-code-execution-and-how-to-avoid-it.html
- cve@mitrehttps://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/tag/?h=emacs-30.0.92
- cve@mitrehttps://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/tree/ChangeLog.4
- cve@mitrehttps://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/tree/etc/NEWS?h=emacs-30.1
- cve@mitrehttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42256409
- cve@mitrehttps://yhetil.org/emacs/CAFXAjY5f4YfHAtZur1RAqH34UbYU56_t6t2Er0YEh1Sb7-W=hg@mail.gmail.com/
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/02/msg00033.html
Vendor Advisories for CVE-2024-53920(1)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
Patch Availability(7)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | emacs-pgtk (1:29.3+1-1ubuntu2+esm3) @ noble | 2026-05-23 | ubuntu |
| redhat | discovery/discovery-server-rhel9:sha256:bd9cb502def3153c193713b56372694cb555a71b38d4fc0fd9d021bccc5602de | 2025-07-21 | redhat |
| redhat | emacs-1:26.1-15.el8_10 | 2025-07-15 | redhat |
| redhat | emacs-1:27.2-14.el9_6.2 | 2025-06-24 | redhat |
| redhat | emacs-1:27.2-10.el9_4.2 | 2025-05-12 | redhat |
| redhat | emacs-1:27.2-11.el9_5.2 | 2025-05-12 | redhat |
| redhat | emacs-1:27.2-8.el9_2.3 | 2025-05-12 | redhat |
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.
Additional Vendor Advisories
(7)
Vendors that published advisories for this CVE beyond the curated set above. Broader coverage but minimal per-row detail — click through for the original advisory.
- Microsoft MSRCCVE-2024-539202025-03-25
In elisp-mode.el in GNU Emacs before 30.1, a user who chooses to invoke elisp-completion-at-point (for code completion) on untrusted Emacs Lisp source code can trigger unsafe Lisp macro expansion that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code. (This unsafe expansion also occurs if a user chooses to enable on-the-fly diagnosis that byte compiles untrusted Emacs Lisp source code.)
- Red HatRHSA-2025:11030MODERATE2024-11-27
RHSA-2025:11030 — Moderate
- Red HatRHSA-2025:4787MODERATE2024-11-27
RHSA-2025:4787 — Moderate
- Red HatRHSA-2025:4793MODERATE2024-11-27
RHSA-2025:4793 — Moderate
- Red HatRHSA-2025:4794MODERATE2024-11-27
RHSA-2025:4794 — Moderate
- Red HatRHSA-2025:9448MODERATE2024-11-27
RHSA-2025:9448 — Moderate
- UbuntuUSN-8011-1MEDIUM
Emacs vulnerabilities
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 10× in last 7d / 42× 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.
- 2026-07-23 02:44 UTCEG score recompute
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- 2026-05-23 17:15 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-23 17:15 UTCGHSA enrichment
Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)
Same vendor
10 shownmsrc · redhat
Same CWE
10 shownCWE-94
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2024-53920?
When was CVE-2024-53920 disclosed?
Is CVE-2024-53920 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2024-53920?
How do I remediate CVE-2024-53920?
Dependency Blast Radius
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