Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
high 8.8

CVE-2026-42850 json

Kitty has a shell command injection

published 2026-06-12 4 mo ago modified 2026-10-26 13 d ago also EUVD-2026-36553

cvss
8.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 21%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Kitty is a cross-platform GPU based terminal. In versions prior to 0.47.0, it is possible to inject commands within the subshell through kitty error. A special escape code will make kitty return an error, this error is not escaped and will be correctly echoed back to the terminal with CRLF, as such it will be run by the shell in use. To exploit this bug, the victim must use a netcat or a similar program to connect to the attacker, or else listening for someone to connect. Once this condition is set, an attacker could pwn the computer of the victim using a special kitty's escape code that will run a command in the shell in use. Version 04.7.0 fixes the issue.

Patch / fix

  • kovidgoyal kitty 0.47.0
  • kitty Debian 13 0.41.1-2+deb13u2
  • kitty Debian 14 0.47.0-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-42850

  • kitty Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS 0.32.2-1ubuntu0.4+esm2
  • kitty Ubuntu Pro 26.04 LTS 0.45.0-1ubuntu0.1~esm2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-42850

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kitty openSUSE Leap 16.0 0.48.2-bp160.1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21599-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-42850 updated cvss 7.5

kitty: Kitty: Arbitrary code execution via command injection through unescaped error

  • Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
4 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.29% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 21% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/security/advisories/GHSA-p64q-59hq-5q65 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 4.0 7.4 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CNA 4.0 7.4 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
NVD 3.1 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • kovidgoyal kitty

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-77 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in a Command

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.