---
id: CVE-2026-54672
aliases:
  - GHSA-7g7r-gx96-252g
title: >-
  electron-updater: Uncontrolled search path elements within `AppImage` built by
  `app-builder-lib`
summary: >-
  electron-updater: Uncontrolled search path elements within `AppImage` built by
  `app-builder-lib`
severity: high
cvss: 7.8
cwe:
  - CWE-427
vendor: app-builder-lib
product: app-builder-lib
ecosystem: npm
affected:
  - app-builder-lib < 26.15.0
patched:
  - app-builder-lib 26.15.0
published: '2026-07-24'
updated: '2026-07-24'
source: GHSA
sourceUrl: 'https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-7g7r-gx96-252g'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/security/advisories/GHSA-7g7r-gx96-252g
  - url: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-54672'
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/commit/01b8ba979d1db44543e18d07b4ad94953deb10ea
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/releases/tag/electron-builder@26.15.0
  - url: 'https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-7g7r-gx96-252g'
tags:
  - ghsa
  - npm
epss: 0.00186
epssPercentile: 0.08497
ingestedAt: '2026-07-24T14:29:29.459Z'
---

## Overview

### Summary

`AppImage` targets built by `app-builder-lib` could use an empty path component when setting the `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` environment variable at runtime. This causes the current working directory to be added to the dynamic linker search path, which may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code by placing a malicious shared library in the directory from which the `AppImage` is launched.

This vulnerability is the same class as [`CVE-2024-41817`](https://github.com/ImageMagick/ImageMagick/security/advisories/GHSA-8rxc-922v-phg8).

### Details

The vulnerability existed in two independent code paths within `app-builder-lib` (toolset `1.0.0`) and through upstream dependency `app-builder-bin` (toolset `0.0.0`).

#### Path 1 — Modern static runtime (`AppRun` generated by TypeScript)

The `AppRun` script generated by `app-builder-lib` contained this line:

```bash
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${APPDIR}/usr/lib:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}"
```

When `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` is not set in the environment at launch time, this evaluates to:

```
/path/to/app.AppDir/usr/lib:
```

The trailing `:` is treated by the dynamic linker as an empty path component, which resolves to the current working directory. If an attacker can place a malicious shared library (e.g., `libfoo.so`) in the directory from which the `AppImage` is executed, that library will be loaded in place of the legitimate one, resulting in arbitrary code execution.

The same issue affected `PATH`, `XDG_DATA_DIRS`, and `GSETTINGS_SCHEMA_DIR` in the same script.

```bash
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${APPDIR}/usr/lib${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}}"
```

#### Path 2 — Legacy FUSE2 toolset (`app-builder-bin`)

`AppImage` targets built using the legacy FUSE2 toolset (`toolsets.appimage = "0.0.0"`) delegated `AppRun` script generation to the `app-builder-bin` Go binary, which contained the same vulnerable template:

https://github.com/develar/app-builder/blob/7004925f95d8f034fc88d7e782c9aa7583debb8e/pkg/package-format/appimage/templates/AppRun.sh#L27

### Impact

An attacker with the ability to write files to the directory from which a vulnerable `AppImage` is executed can cause arbitrary shared libraries to be loaded into the application process, resulting in arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the user running the `AppImage`.

### Affected Versions

This was fully resolved in **`app-builder-lib@26.15.0`** (commit [`01b8ba979`](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/commit/01b8ba979), PR [#9829](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/pull/9829)) when `app-builder-bin` was removed from the dependency tree entirely and all AppImage construction was migrated to the TypeScript implementation.

### Workarounds

Set `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` to a non-empty value before launching the `AppImage`, so that the concatenation does not produce an empty path component. Alternatively, avoid running `AppImage` files from world-writable directories such as `/tmp`.

## Affected packages

- `app-builder-lib < 26.15.0`

## Remediation

Upgrade to a patched release:

- `app-builder-lib 26.15.0`