USN-8991-1: rxvt-unicode vulnerability

Published Nov 3, 2026
·
Updated

It was discovered that rxvt-unicode incorrectly handled certain escape sequences. An attacker could possibly use this issue to execute arbitrary code if a user displayed specially crafted text in the terminal.

Affected Software

13 affected componentsFixes available
All of the following
ubuntu/rxvt-unicode<Ubuntu Pro
Ubuntu Pro
Ubuntu Ubuntu=20.04
All of the following
ubuntu/rxvt-unicode<Ubuntu Pro
Ubuntu Pro
Ubuntu Ubuntu=18.04
All of the following
ubuntu/rxvt-unicode<9.21-1ubuntu0.1~esm1
9.21-1ubuntu0.1~esm1
Ubuntu Ubuntu=16.04
All of the following
ubuntu/rxvt-unicode-256color<9.21-1ubuntu0.1~esm1
9.21-1ubuntu0.1~esm1
Ubuntu Ubuntu=16.04
All of the following
ubuntu/rxvt-unicode-lite<9.21-1ubuntu0.1~esm1
9.21-1ubuntu0.1~esm1
Ubuntu Ubuntu=16.04
ubuntu/rxvt-unicode<9.21-1ubuntu0.1~esm1
9.21-1ubuntu0.1~esm1
ubuntu/rxvt-unicode<9.22-3ubuntu0.1~esm1
9.22-3ubuntu0.1~esm1
ubuntu/rxvt-unicode<9.22-6ubuntu0.1~esm1
9.22-6ubuntu0.1~esm1

Remediation

Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.

  1. Upgrade

    Upgrade ubuntu/rxvt-unicode to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in Ubuntu Pro
  2. Upgrade

    Upgrade ubuntu/rxvt-unicode to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in 9.21-1ubuntu0.1~esm1
  3. Upgrade

    Upgrade ubuntu/rxvt-unicode-256color to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in 9.21-1ubuntu0.1~esm1
  4. Upgrade

    Upgrade ubuntu/rxvt-unicode-lite to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in 9.21-1ubuntu0.1~esm1
  5. Upgrade

    Upgrade ubuntu/rxvt-unicode to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in 9.22-3ubuntu0.1~esm1
  6. Upgrade

    Upgrade ubuntu/rxvt-unicode to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in 9.22-6ubuntu0.1~esm1

Event History

Nov 3, 2026
Advisory Published
via Ubuntu·12:00 AM
Data Sourced
via Ubuntu·12:00 AM
DescriptionAffected Software
Advisory Published
via OSV·05:37 PM
Data Sourced
via OSV·05:37 PM
DescriptionAffected Software

Child vulnerabilities

Contains the following vulnerabilities.

Company

Resources

Contact

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