A common pc running bash inside a home LAN network (with a router/gateway provid

Question

A common pc running bash inside a home LAN network (with a router/gateway providing internet access to the LAN) does not have any contact with the external internet, except browser navigation and the mailreader (with no port forward in the router and with a secure DHCP server).

If no one from inside the LAN does attack that pc, is it anyway vulnerable to Shellshock due to external attacks? In other words: could an external attacker exploit the internet navigation or the mail reading/sending in order to penetrate that host in the LAN?

Explanation / Answer

It's impossible to say.

Assuming you don't have any ports forwarded to the PC and your router provides a DHCP server for your LAN, you aren't vulnerable to the classic attack vectors (CGI scripts on a webserver, a rogue DHCP server, or bypassing SSH command restrictions). However, bash is ubiquitous: you might be vulnerable to a program running something like system("file $path") to determine the type of an email attachment, or any of a variety of other attack vectors.

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