CVE-2024-39698: Electron Electron-Builder

High severity, CVSS 7.5. EPSS: 0.4% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

electron-updater allows for automatic updates for Electron apps. The file `packages/electron-updater/src/windowsExecutableCodeSignatureVerifier.ts` implements the signature validation routine for Electron applications on Windows. Because of the surrounding shell, a first pass by `cmd.exe` expands any environment variable found in command-line above. This creates a situation where `verifySignature()` can be tricked into validating the certificate of a different file than the one that was just downloaded. If the step is successful, the malicious update will be executed even if its signature is invalid. This attack assumes a compromised update manifest (server compromise, Man-in-the-Middle attack if fetched over HTTP, Cross-Site Scripting to point the application to a malicious updater server, etc.). The patch is available starting from 6.3.0-alpha.6.

Affected products

• Electron Electron-Builder: before 6.3.0 (fixed in 6.3.0); version 6.3.0 only

Published 2024-07-09. Last modified 2026-06-17.