CVE-2007-6350
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedscponly 4.6 and earlier allows remote authenticated users to bypass intended restrictions and execute code by invoking dangerous subcommands including (1) unison, (2) rsync, (3) svn, and (4) svnserve, as originally demonstrated by creating a Subversion (SVN) repository with malicious hooks, then using svn to trigger execution of those hooks.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidencescponly 4.6 and earlier is a restricted shell meant to limit users to only scp/sftp operations, but fails to properly restrict dangerous subcommands. Authenticated users can invoke unison, rsync, svn, or svnserve to break out of the restricted environment. The specific exploit demonstrated creates a malicious Subversion repository with hook scripts, then uses the svn client to trigger execution of those hooks with elevated privileges.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 4.6= 4.2= 4.3= 4.4= 4.5CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- M
- Authentication
- Single
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed scponly versionRun 'scponly --version' or check the package manager (e.g., 'rpm -q scponly', 'dpkg -l scponly', or check /usr/sbin/scponly binary version with 'scponly -v 2>&1' or 'strings /usr/sbin/scponly | grep -i version')Affected if The version number returned is 4.6 or lower, or any of these specific versions: 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6
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Determine if scponly is configured as a user shellCheck /etc/passwd for users with scponly set as their login shell: 'grep scponly /etc/passwd' or check for scponly in /etc/shellsAffected if Any system accounts use scponly as their shell, making the restriction bypass applicable to those users
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Verify dangerous subcommands are reachableIf scponly is in use, test whether the binaries unison, rsync, svn, or svnserve exist on the system and are in the PATH accessible to scponly users: 'ls -la /usr/bin/unison /usr/bin/rsync /usr/bin/svn /usr/bin/svnserve' or check which paths scponly allows access toAffected if Any of these binaries (unison, rsync, svn, svnserve) exist on the system and are accessible to users restricted by scponly
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Inspect scponly configuration for allowed programsCheck scponly configuration files in /etc/scponly/ or the scponly setup directory (often /usr/local/scponly/etc/ or /etc/scponly/) for any whitelisted programsAffected if The configuration allows or does not explicitly block access to unison, rsync, svn, or svnserve
A user is affected if their system runs scponly version 4.6 or earlier and has unison, rsync, svn, or svnserve binaries accessible to users restricted by the scponly shell.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade to scponly 4.7 or later which properly restricts these subcommands, or remove/block access to unison, rsync, svn, and svnserve from the restricted shell environment.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2007-6350 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2007-6350 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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