Kakoune has a Critical RCE via Autorestore Backup Filename Injection

published 2026-08-07 3 mo ago modified 2026-10-23 16 d ago also EUVD-2026-54719

cvss: 8.6; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.2%; EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 9%
public exploits: 0; none known

Kakoune is a code editor. Prior to version 2026.05.21, the bundled, enabled by default, `autorestore.kak` script can be exploited by malicious backup files leading to arbitrary kakoune and shell commands being executed by simply opening a file. Kakoune 2026.05.21 fixes the issue. As a workaround, add `autorestore-disable` to the user kakrc will disable the autorestore feature.

Patch / fix

distros 1 links 1

kakoune Debian 14 2026.05.21-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-48120

github.com/mawww/kakoune@25c7b13 commit

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-2026-48120 updated 2026-08-11 cvss 8.6

kakoune: Kakoune: Remote Code Execution via malicious backup files

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: 2 mo ago (2026-08-11)

Exploit prediction

0.20% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 9% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.1	8.6	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

mawww kakoune

Classification

Weakness

CWE-74 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component

References

Sources

CVE List CVE-2026-48120
NVD CVE-2026-48120

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.

Summary