🛡️ CVE-2024-53920 on Ubuntu — emacs

⚪ Unknown ✅ No Known Exploit OSV
N/A
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

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.)

Distribution advisory

This page covers CVE-2024-53920 as tracked by Ubuntu, for the package emacs. The fix is available in version 1:29.3+1-1ubuntu2+esm3; earlier versions remain affected.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs no privileges on the target. A user must be tricked into taking some action. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity high, availability high.

Weakness class

UBUNTU-CVE-2024-53920 is classified as CWE-94: Code Injection. Input is incorporated into code that the runtime evaluates, so an attacker can have their own code executed.

Affected software

UBUNTU-CVE-2024-53920 is recorded against 5 packages.

  • emacs (fixed in 1:29.3+1-1ubuntu2+esm3)
  • emacs24
  • emacs25
  • xemacs21
  • xemacs21-packages

Timeline and source

Published on 27 November 2024 and last revised on 20 May 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. Record sourced from OSV.

References

ubuntu.com (Report)
www.cve.org (Report)
eshelyaron.com (Report)
git.savannah.gnu.org (Report)
git.savannah.gnu.org (Report)
news.ycombinator.com (Report)
yhetil.org (Report)
ubuntu.com (Advisory)

CVE-2024-53920 on other distributions

Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:

Details

Severity Unknown
CVSS Score N/A
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CWE N/A
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source OSV
Published 2024-11-27
Updated 2026-08-12
Modified 2026-05-20
Fix URL N/A

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
emacs — 1:29.3+1-1ubuntu2+esm3
emacs24 — —
emacs25 — —
xemacs21 — —
xemacs21-packages — —

Similar Threats

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