Tuesday, May 6, 2025
HomeSecurity NewsHackers Can Abuse Plugins for Popular Unix Text Editors to Escalate Privileges

Hackers Can Abuse Plugins for Popular Unix Text Editors to Escalate Privileges

Published on

SIEM as a Service

Follow Us on Google News

Advanced Unix Text Editors offers extensibility by allowing users to install third-party plugins for ease of use and to enhance the Text Editors functionalities.

Server administrators often run text editors with elevated privileges “sudo gedit” to edit root-owned configuration files. If the text editor contains vulnerable third-party plugin it enlarges attack surface.

A vulnerable third-party text editor plugin could be abused by attackers to escalate the privileges of your system/server.

- Advertisement - Google News

Also Read Top 5 Best Text Editors For Linux

According to recent safebreach research, “they found the inadequate separation of regular and elevated modes. Folder permissions integrity is not maintained and that opens the door for an attacker with regular user permissions to get the elevated execution of arbitrary code and to gain privilege escalation on the machine“.

Researchers tested the attacks the well known highly-ranked text editors Sublime, Vim, Emacs, Gedit, pico/nano. They have published a research paper with examples.

Here is the scenario “Imagine that an attacker can run the arbitrary code as a sudoer but not elevated, all he needs is to write the malicious plugin in user folder that uses the text editor and wait for the execution of plugin in elevated status”.

The vulnerability has been notified by researchers to vendors and it still remain’s unpatched. Researchers suggested monitoring modifications to the key files and folders presented by adding OSSEC rules.

Also Read Most Important Computer Forensics Tools for Hackers and Security Professionals

Below is the list of mitigations suggested – Unix Text Editors

  • Implement OSEC monitoring rules.
  • Deny write permissions for non-elevated users.
  • Change folders and file permission models to ensure separation between regular and elevated modes.
  • Prevent loading of 3rd party plugins when an editor is elevated.
  • Provide a manual interface to approve the elevated loading of plugins.
Gurubaran
Gurubaran
Gurubaran is a co-founder of Cyber Security News and GBHackers On Security. He has 10+ years of experience as a Security Consultant, Editor, and Analyst in cybersecurity, technology, and communications.

Latest articles

Gunra Ransomware’s Double‑Extortion Playbook and Global Impact

Gunra Ransomware, has surfaced as a formidable threat in April 2025, targeting Windows systems...

Hackers Exploit 21 Apps to Take Full Control of E-Commerce Servers

Cybersecurity firm Sansec has uncovered a sophisticated supply chain attack that has compromised 21...

Hackers Target HR Departments With Fake Resumes to Spread More_eggs Malware

The financially motivated threat group Venom Spider, also tracked as TA4557, has shifted its...

RomCom RAT Targets UK Organizations Through Compromised Customer Feedback Portals

The Russian-based threat group RomCom, also known as Storm-0978, Tropical Scorpius, and Void Rabisu,...

Resilience at Scale

Why Application Security is Non-Negotiable

The resilience of your digital infrastructure directly impacts your ability to scale. And yet, application security remains a critical weak link for most organizations.

Application Security is no longer just a defensive play—it’s the cornerstone of cyber resilience and sustainable growth. In this webinar, Karthik Krishnamoorthy (CTO of Indusface) and Phani Deepak Akella (VP of Marketing – Indusface), will share how AI-powered application security can help organizations build resilience by

Discussion points


Protecting at internet scale using AI and behavioral-based DDoS & bot mitigation.
Autonomously discovering external assets and remediating vulnerabilities within 72 hours, enabling secure, confident scaling.
Ensuring 100% application availability through platforms architected for failure resilience.
Eliminating silos with real-time correlation between attack surface and active threats for rapid, accurate mitigation

More like this

FBI Alerts Public to Scammers Posing as IC3 Officials in Fraud Scheme

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a warning regarding an emerging scam...

New ‘Waiting Thread Hijacking’ Malware Technique Evades Modern Security Measures

Security researchers have unveiled a new malware process injection technique dubbed "Waiting Thread Hijacking"...

EU’s GDPR Article 7 Poses New Challenges for Businesses To Secure AI-Generated Image Data

As businesses worldwide embrace digital transformation, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR),...