GitHub Advisoryadvisory · crates.io

GHSA-p6rv-2qpm-fwvg kill: 'kill -1' parsed as PID -1, sending SIGTERM to all processes (system crash / DoS)

MEDIUM Published 2026-07-06 Modified 2026-07-06 Official page ↗
Aliases
CVE-2026-35369
Ecosystem
crates.io
Packages
uu_kill
Severity
Moderate
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weaknesses
CWE-20, CWE-754
Reviewed
2026-07-06

Affected packages

• crates.io uu_kill: < 0.6.0 → fixed in 0.6.0

Description

`kill -1` is incorrectly parsed as a positional `pid = -1`; combined with the default SIGTERM this calls `kill(-1, SIGTERM)`, signaling nearly every process the caller can see. GNU `kill` recognizes `-1`/`-9` as signals and reports "not enough arguments". ``` $ kill -1 # uutils: kill(-1, SIGTERM) -> mass termination / crash $ kill -1 # GNU: kill: not enough arguments ``` Impact: a user running `kill -1` mass-terminates processes, potentially crashing the system. Recommendation: parse `-N` as a signal number, and error with "not enough arguments" when no PID is given. Remediation: Acknowledged by Canonical; fixed in commit cae94028. --- _Reported by Zellic in the *uutils coreutils Program Security Assessment* (prepared for Canonical, Jan 20 2026), audited commit `3a07ffc5a9bd4c283e75afa548ba1f1957bad242`. Finding 3.70. Credit: Zellic._

Related

Alias · CVE (1)

  • CVE-2026-35369 An argument parsing error in the kill utility of uutils coreutils incorrectly interprets kill -1 as a request to send the default signal… vulnerability

Weakness · CWE (2)

  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation weakness
  • CWE-754 Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions weakness

References