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Skype, Slack, other apps inherit Electron vuln

Devs, check your protocol handling, patch if necessary

Updated If you've built a Windows application on Electron, check to see if it's subject to a just-announced remote code execution vulnerability.

Electron is a node.js and Chromium framework that lets developers use Web technologies (JavaScript, HTML and CSS) to build desktop apps. It's widely-used: Skype, Slack, Signal, a Basecamp implementation and a desktop Wordpress app all count themselves as adopters.

Slack users should update to version 3.0.3 or better, and the latest version of Skype for Windows is protected, Microsoft told Cyberscoop.

Electron has only published limited details of CVE-2018-1000006, but it affects Windows applications that use custom protocol handlers in the framework.

Here's what the advisory has to say:

“Electron apps designed to run on Windows that register themselves as the default handler for a protocol, like myapp://, are vulnerable.

“Such apps can be affected regardless of how the protocol is registered, e.g. using native code, the Windows registry, or Electron's app.setAsDefaultProtocolClient API.

A ray of sunshine to close: “macOS and Linux are not vulnerable to this issue”, Electron's developers said.

The advisory doesn't give any indication how many apps make themselves the default protocol handler.

Electron has pushed out two patched versions: 1.8.2-beta.4, 1.7.11, and 1.6.16, and: “If for some reason you are unable to upgrade your Electron version, you can append -- as the last argument when calling app.setAsDefaultProtocolClient, which prevents Chromium from parsing further options.” ®

Updated to add

Signal reckons it's not affected:

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