GHSA-P6RV-2QPM-FWVG

Vulnerability from github – Published: 2026-07-06 19:55 – Updated: 2026-07-06 19:55
VLAI
Summary
kill: 'kill -1' parsed as PID -1, sending SIGTERM to all processes (system crash / DoS)
Details

kill -1 is incorrectly parsed as a positional pid = -1; combined with the default SIGTERM this calls kill(-1, SIGTERM), signaling nearly every process the caller can see. GNU kill recognizes -1/-9 as signals and reports "not enough arguments".

$ kill -1        # uutils: kill(-1, SIGTERM) -> mass termination / crash
$ kill -1        # GNU: kill: not enough arguments

Impact: a user running kill -1 mass-terminates processes, potentially crashing the system. Recommendation: parse -N as a signal number, and error with "not enough arguments" when no PID is given.

Remediation: Acknowledged by Canonical; fixed in commit cae94028.

Reported by Zellic in the uutils coreutils Program Security Assessment (prepared for Canonical, Jan 20 2026), audited commit 3a07ffc5a9bd4c283e75afa548ba1f1957bad242. Finding 3.70. Credit: Zellic.

Severity
5.5 (Medium)
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Show details on source website
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{
  "affected": [
    {
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "crates.io",
        "name": "uu_kill"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "0.6.0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2026-35369"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [
      "CWE-20",
      "CWE-754"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": true,
    "github_reviewed_at": "2026-07-06T19:55:15Z",
    "nvd_published_at": null,
    "severity": "MODERATE"
  },
  "details": "`kill -1` is incorrectly parsed as a positional `pid = -1`; combined with the default SIGTERM this calls `kill(-1, SIGTERM)`, signaling nearly every process the caller can see. GNU `kill` recognizes `-1`/`-9` as signals and reports \"not enough arguments\".\n\n```\n$ kill -1        # uutils: kill(-1, SIGTERM) -\u003e mass termination / crash\n$ kill -1        # GNU: kill: not enough arguments\n```\n\n**Impact:** a user running `kill -1` mass-terminates processes, potentially crashing the system. Recommendation: parse `-N` as a signal number, and error with \"not enough arguments\" when no PID is given.\n\n**Remediation:** Acknowledged by Canonical; fixed in commit cae94028.\n\n---\n_Reported by Zellic in the *uutils coreutils Program Security Assessment* (prepared for Canonical, Jan 20 2026), audited commit `3a07ffc5a9bd4c283e75afa548ba1f1957bad242`. Finding 3.70. Credit: Zellic._",
  "id": "GHSA-p6rv-2qpm-fwvg",
  "modified": "2026-07-06T19:55:15Z",
  "published": "2026-07-06T19:55:15Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/uutils/coreutils/security/advisories/GHSA-p6rv-2qpm-fwvg"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-35369"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/uutils/coreutils/pull/9700"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/uutils/coreutils/commit/2d3aebce6712841bc08b9b94e9078be50a25fc10"
    },
    {
      "type": "PACKAGE",
      "url": "https://github.com/uutils/coreutils"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/uutils/coreutils/releases/tag/0.6.0"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    }
  ],
  "summary": "kill: \u0027kill -1\u0027 parsed as PID -1, sending SIGTERM to all processes (system crash / DoS)"
}



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