Code injection via visually confusable identifiers
Published Nov 1, 2021 · Updated Oct 29, 2024
Source-code spoofing in The Unicode Standard allows attackers to inject code through visually confusable identifier names. Distinct Unicode code points can render as nearly identical names, so malicious upstream definitions evade human review and invoke different code. Exploitation requires a reviewer or developer to accept the deceptive source or dependency, after which the downstream build executes the concealed definition.
Summary
What happened
Source-code spoofing in The Unicode Standard allows attackers to inject code through visually confusable identifier names. Distinct Unicode code points can render as nearly identical names, so malicious upstream definitions evade human review and invoke different code. Exploitation requires a reviewer or developer to accept the deceptive source or dependency, after which the downstream build executes the concealed definition.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2021-42694
- Published
- Nov 1, 2021
- Updated
- Oct 29, 2024
- Vendor
- The Unicode Consortium
- Product
- The Unicode Standard
- Classifications
- CWE-94, T1195.001
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Nov 1, 2021CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 29, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=0 <14.0.0
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Trojan Source homoglyph proof of conceptproof of concept · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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