Description
A logic error in the cut utility of uutils coreutils causes the program to incorrectly interpret the literal two-byte string '' (two single quotes) as an empty delimiter. The implementation mistakenly maps this string to the NUL character for both the -d (delimiter) and --output-delimiter options. This vulnerability can lead to silent data corruption or logic errors in automated scripts and data pipelines that process strings containing these characters, as the utility may unintentionally split or join data on NUL bytes rather than the intended literal characters.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uutils | coreutils | < 0.8.0 | 0.8.0 |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | rust-coreutils | 0.8.0-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | rust-coreutils | No fix yet | — |
| Debian 12 | rust-coreutils | No fix yet | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 25.10 | rust-coreutils | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | rust-coreutils | No fix yet | — |
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| crates.io | coreutils | < 0.8.0 | 0.8.0 | GHSA-m2pg-c7m6-77pj |
References
- https://github.com/uutils/coreutils/pull/11399 issue-tracking patch
- https://github.com/uutils/coreutils/releases/tag/0.8.0 vendor-advisory