CVE-2026-54672
electron-updater: Uncontrolled search path elements within `AppImage` built by `app-builder-lib`
Summary
### Summary `AppImage` targets built by `app-builder-lib` could use an empty path component when setting the `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` environment variable at runtime. This causes the current working directory to be added to the dynamic linker search path, which may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code by placing a malicious shared library in the directory from which the `AppImage` is launched. This vulnerability is the same class as [`CVE-2024-41817`](https://github.com/ImageMagick/ImageMagick/security/advisories/GHSA-8rxc-922v-phg8). ### Details The vulnerability existed in two independent code paths within `app-builder-lib` (toolset `1.0.0`) and through upstream dependency `app-builder-bin` (toolset `0.0.0`). #### Path 1 — Modern static runtime (`AppRun` generated by TypeScript) The `AppRun` script generated by `app-builder-lib` contained this line: ```bash export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${APPDIR}/usr/lib:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}" ``` When `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` is not set in the environment at launch time, this evaluates to: ``` /path/to/app.AppDir/usr/lib: ``` The trailing `:` is treated by the dynamic linker as an empty path component, which resolves to the current working directory. If an attacker can place a malicious shared library (e.g., `libfoo.so`) in the directory from which the `AppImage` is executed, that library will be loaded in place of the legitimate one, resulting in arbitrary code execution. The same issue affected `PATH`, `XDG_DATA_DIRS`, and `GSETTINGS_SCHEMA_DIR` in the same script. ```bash export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${APPDIR}/usr/lib${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}}" ``` #### Path 2 — Legacy FUSE2 toolset (`app-builder-bin`) `AppImage` targets built using the legacy FUSE2 toolset (`toolsets.appimage = "0.0.0"`) delegated `AppRun` script generation to the `app-builder-bin` Go binary, which contained the same vulnerable template: https://github.com/develar/app-builder/blob/7004925f95d8f034fc88d7e782c9aa7583debb8e/pkg/package-format/appimage/templates/AppRun.sh#L27 ### Impact An attacker with the ability to write files to the directory from which a vulnerable `AppImage` is executed can cause arbitrary shared libraries to be loaded into the application process, resulting in arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the user running the `AppImage`. ### Affected Versions This was fully resolved in **`[email protected]`** (commit [`01b8ba979`](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/commit/01b8ba979), PR [#9829](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/pull/9829)) when `app-builder-bin` was removed from the dependency tree entirely and all AppImage construction was migrated to the TypeScript implementation. ### Workarounds Set `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` to a non-empty value before launching the `AppImage`, so that the concatenation does not produce an empty path component. Alternatively, avoid running `AppImage` files from world-writable directories such as `/tmp`.
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected versions | Fixed versions |
|---|---|---|---|
| npm | app-builder-lib | — | 26.15.0 |
Remediation: Upgrade to 26.15.0 or later.
References
Includes data from the GitHub Advisory Database, licensed under CC-BY 4.0.
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EPSS scores provided by the FIRST.org Exploit Prediction Scoring System.