CVE-2026-54672: electron-updater Uncontrolled Search Path Elements Within Vulnerability

{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-7g7r-gx96-252g",
  "modified" : "2026-07-24T14:00:59Z",
  "published" : "2026-07-24T14:00:59Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-54672" ],
  "summary" : "electron-updater: Uncontrolled search path elements within `AppImage` built by `app-builder-lib`",
  "details" : "### Summary\n\n`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.\n\nThis vulnerability is the same class as [`CVE-2024-41817`](https://github.com/ImageMagick/ImageMagick/security/advisories/GHSA-8rxc-922v-phg8).\n\n### Details\n\nThe 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`).\n\n#### Path 1 — Modern static runtime (`AppRun` generated by TypeScript)\n\nThe `AppRun` script generated by `app-builder-lib` contained this line:\n\n```bash\nexport LD_LIBRARY_PATH=\"${APPDIR}/usr/lib:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}\"\n```\n\nWhen `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` is not set in the environment at launch time, this evaluates to:\n\n```\n/path/to/app.AppDir/usr/lib:\n```\n\nThe 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.\n\nThe same issue affected `PATH`, `XDG_DATA_DIRS`, and `GSETTINGS_SCHEMA_DIR` in the same script.\n\n```bash\nexport LD_LIBRARY_PATH=\"${APPDIR}/usr/lib${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}}\"\n```\n\n#### Path 2 — Legacy FUSE2 toolset (`app-builder-bin`)\n\n`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:\n\nhttps://github.com/develar/app-builder/blob/7004925f95d8f034fc88d7e782c9aa7583debb8e/pkg/package-format/appimage/templates/AppRun.sh#L27\n\n### Impact\n\nAn 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`.\n\n### Affected Versions\n\nThis was fully resolved in **`app-builder-lib@26.15.0`** (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.\n\n### Workarounds\n\nSet `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`.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "app-builder-lib"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "26.15.0"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/security/advisories/GHSA-7g7r-gx96-252g"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-54672"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/commit/01b8ba979d1db44543e18d07b4ad94953deb10ea"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/releases/tag/electron-builder@26.15.0"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-427" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-07-24T14:00:59Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2026-06-30T23:17:27Z"
  }
}