CVE-2026-35378

uutils coreutils expr Local Denial of Service via Eager Evaluation of Parenthesized Subexpressions

Published Apr 22, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 3.3 Low EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
A logic error in the expr utility of uutils coreutils causes the program to evaluate parenthesized subexpressions during the parsing phase rather than at the execution phase. This implementation flaw prevents the utility from performing proper short-circuiting for logical OR (|) and AND (&) operations. As a result, arithmetic errors (such as division by zero) occurring within "dead" branches, branches that should be ignored due to short-circuiting, are raised as fatal errors. This divergence from GNU expr behavior can cause guarded expressions within shell scripts to fail with hard errors instead of returning expected boolean results, leading to premature script termination and breaking GNU-compatible shell control flow.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-5pv5-xh52-hvrp uutils coreutils has an Incorrect Short Circuit Evaluation Issue
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:uutils:coreutils:*:*:*:*:*:rust:*:*
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Uutils
Uutils coreutils
Vendors & Products Uutils
Uutils coreutils
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'poc', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description A logic error in the expr utility of uutils coreutils causes the program to evaluate parenthesized subexpressions during the parsing phase rather than at the execution phase. This implementation flaw prevents the utility from performing proper short-circuiting for logical OR (|) and AND (&) operations. As a result, arithmetic errors (such as division by zero) occurring within "dead" branches, branches that should be ignored due to short-circuiting, are raised as fatal errors. This divergence from GNU expr behavior can cause guarded expressions within shell scripts to fail with hard errors instead of returning expected boolean results, leading to premature script termination and breaking GNU-compatible shell control flow.
Title uutils coreutils expr Local Denial of Service via Eager Evaluation of Parenthesized Subexpressions
Weaknesses CWE-768
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 3.3, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
canonical
Published
Updated
Apr 22, 2026, 5:00 PM
Reserved
Apr 2, 2026, 12:58 PM
Status
Analyzed
Published
Apr 22, 2026, 5:16 PM
Modified
Oct 26, 2026, 10:10 PM