CVE-2026-56389

Arbitrary Command Execution in GNU Bison

Published Jul 29, 2026 CVSS 4.0 · 6.8 Medium EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
GNU Bison allows for an execution of an arbitrary program during HTML report generation due to improper handling of grammar-defined configuration variables. A grammar file can override the executable used for the XML‑to‑HTML transformation step via %define tool.xsltproc, which is accepted without restriction and passed directly to execvp().

When running bison --html on a attacker-provided grammar, this behavior allows execution of an arbitrary program with the privileges of the Bison process.


Maintainers of this project were notified about this vulnerability, and fixed the issue in commit 3169c1e7a2c6acc4c59dfcf8b089896d6881925b. However, they did not provide vulnerable version range. Version 3.8.2 was tested and confirmed as vulnerable, other versions were not tested but might also be vulnerable.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8777-1 GNU Bison vulnerability
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:gnu:bison:3.8.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 8.6, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Gnu
Gnu bison
Vendors & Products Gnu
Gnu bison
Type Values Removed Values Added
Description GNU Bison allows for an execution of an arbitrary program during HTML report generation due to improper handling of grammar-defined configuration variables. A grammar file can override the executable used for the XML‑to‑HTML transformation step via %define tool.xsltproc, which is accepted without restriction and passed directly to execvp(). When running bison --html on a attacker-provided grammar, this behavior allows execution of an arbitrary program with the privileges of the Bison process. Maintainers of this project were notified about this vulnerability, and fixed the issue in commit 3169c1e7a2c6acc4c59dfcf8b089896d6881925b. However, they did not provide vulnerable version range. Version 3.8.2 was tested and confirmed as vulnerable, other versions were not tested but might also be vulnerable.
Title Arbitrary Command Execution in GNU Bison
Weaknesses CWE-78
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 6.8, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:H/VA:L/SC:L/SI:L/SA:L'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
CERT-PL
Published
Updated
Jul 29, 2026, 12:21 PM
Reserved
Jun 21, 2026, 7:15 AM
Status
Analyzed
Published
Jul 29, 2026, 11:16 AM
Modified
Oct 23, 2026, 11:10 PM