PT-2017-14832 · Fontforge+3 · Fontforge+3

CVE-2017-17521 · Published 2017-12-14 · Updated 2025-04-11

Positive Technologies (AI Summary)

CVSS v3.1

8.8

High

Base vector

AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Name of the Vulnerable Software and Affected Versions FontForge versions prior to 20170731

Description The issue concerns the uiutil.c component in FontForge, which fails to validate strings before launching a program specified by the BROWSER environment variable. This could potentially allow remote attackers to conduct argument-injection attacks via a crafted URL.

Recommendations For versions prior to 20170731, consider updating to a version that includes the necessary validation for the BROWSER environment variable to prevent argument-injection attacks. As a temporary workaround, restrict the use of the BROWSER environment variable to minimize the risk of exploitation.

Fix

Special Elements Injection

Weakness Enumeration

CWE-74

Related Identifiers

ALT-PU-2019-2045

ALT-PU-2019-2059

CVE-2017-17521

OPENSUSE-SU-2025:14981-1

OPENSUSE-SU-2025_1199-1

SUSE-SU-2025:1199-1

SUSE-SU-2025_1199-1

Affected Products

Alt Linux

Debian

Fontforge

Suse

References · 26

• https://errata.altlinux.org/ALT-PU-2019-2045 · Vendor Advisory
• https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-17521 · Vendor Advisory
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/SUSE-SU-2025:1199-1 · Vendor Advisory
• https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-17521 · Vendor Advisory
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2017-17521 · Vendor Advisory
• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-17521 · Security Note
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/UBUNTU-CVE-2017-17521 · Vendor Advisory
• https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/source-package/fontforge · Vendor Advisory
• http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2017-17521 · Security Note
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-17521 · Vendor Advisory
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/openSUSE-SU-2025:14981-1 · Vendor Advisory
• https://errata.altlinux.org/ALT-PU-2019-2059 · Vendor Advisory
• https://cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-17521 · Security Note
• https://sources.debian.org/src/fontforge/1:20170731%7Edfsg-1/fontforgeexe/uiutil.c/#L285 · Note
• https://bugzilla.suse.com/1073014 · Note