GNU Screen
Don't miss out!
Thousands of developers use stack.watch to stay informed.Get an email whenever new security vulnerabilities are reported in GNU Screen.
By the Year
In 2026 there have been 0 vulnerabilities in GNU Screen. Last year, in 2025 Screen had 5 security vulnerabilities published. Right now, Screen is on track to have less security vulnerabilities in 2026 than it did last year.
| Year | Vulnerabilities | Average Score |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 0 | 0.00 |
| 2025 | 5 | 0.00 |
| 2024 | 0 | 0.00 |
| 2023 | 1 | 6.50 |
| 2022 | 0 | 0.00 |
| 2021 | 1 | 9.80 |
| 2020 | 1 | 0.00 |
It may take a day or so for new Screen vulnerabilities to show up in the stats or in the list of recent security vulnerabilities. Additionally vulnerabilities may be tagged under a different product or component name.
Recent GNU Screen Security Vulnerabilities
screen session PTY set to 666 allows local takeover
CVE-2025-46802
- May 26, 2025
For a short time they PTY is set to mode 666, allowing any user on the system to connect to the screen session.
CVE-2025-23395: Screen 5.0.0 setuid-root PrivEsc via Unprivileged File Creation
CVE-2025-23395
- May 26, 2025
Screen 5.0.0 when it runs with setuid-root privileges does not drop privileges while operating on a user supplied path. This allows unprivileged users to create files in arbitrary locations with `root` ownership, the invoking user's (real) group ownership and file mode 0644. All data written to the Screen PTY will be logged into this file, allowing to escalate to root privileges
Privilege Dropping / Lowering Errors
Screen PTYs Mode Change (0622) Allows Write to All PTYs
CVE-2025-46803
- May 26, 2025
The default mode of pseudo terminals (PTYs) allocated by Screen was changed from 0620 to 0622, thereby allowing anyone to write to any Screen PTYs in the system.
Incorrect Default Permissions
Screen <5.0.0 TOCTOU race allows SIGHUP/SIGCONT to privileged processes
CVE-2025-46805
- May 26, 2025
Screen version 5.0.0 and older version 4 releases have a TOCTOU race potentially allowing to send SIGHUP, SIGCONT to privileged processes when installed setuid-root.
TOCTTOU
Info Leak in GNU Screen 5.0.0 via setuid-root
CVE-2025-46804
- May 26, 2025
A minor information leak when running Screen with setuid-root privileges allows unprivileged users to deduce information about a path that would otherwise not be available. Affected are older Screen versions, as well as version 5.0.0.
Side Channel Attack
Local Privilege Escalation in Screen 4.9.0 via setuid socket (CVE202324626)
CVE-2023-24626
6.5 - Medium
- April 08, 2023
socket.c in GNU Screen through 4.9.0, when installed setuid or setgid (the default on platforms such as Arch Linux and FreeBSD), allows local users to send a privileged SIGHUP signal to any PID, causing a denial of service or disruption of the target process.
encoding.c in GNU Screen through 4.8.0
CVE-2021-26937
9.8 - Critical
- February 09, 2021
encoding.c in GNU Screen through 4.8.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (invalid write access and application crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted UTF-8 character sequence.
Argument Injection
A buffer overflow was found in the way GNU Screen before 4.8.0 treated the special escape OSC 49
CVE-2020-9366
- February 24, 2020
A buffer overflow was found in the way GNU Screen before 4.8.0 treated the special escape OSC 49. Specially crafted output, or a special program, could corrupt memory and crash Screen or possibly have unspecified other impact.
GNU screen before 4.5.1
CVE-2017-5618
- March 20, 2017
GNU screen before 4.5.1 allows local users to modify arbitrary files and consequently gain root privileges by leveraging improper checking of logfile permissions.
GNU screen 4.0.3 allows local users to unlock the screen via a CTRL-C sequence at the password prompt
CVE-2007-3048
- June 05, 2007
GNU screen 4.0.3 allows local users to unlock the screen via a CTRL-C sequence at the password prompt. NOTE: multiple third parties report inability to reproduce this issue
Stay on top of Security Vulnerabilities
Want an email whenever new vulnerabilities are published for GNU Screen or by GNU? Click the Watch button to subscribe.
