Command injection in kitty - CVE-2026-42850
Published: September 22, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU151621
CSH Severity: Medium
CVSS v4: 7 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-42850
CWE-ID: CWE-77
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary shell commands.
The vulnerability exists due to improper neutralization of special elements used in a command in kitty's error handling for the kitty ssh function when processing a specially crafted kitty escape code received over a connection. A remote attacker can send a specially crafted escape code that injects shell commands to execute arbitrary shell commands.
User interaction is required to establish or accept a connection with the attacker.
Affected software
kitty
Debian Linux
kitty (Debian package)
Debian Linux
kitty (Debian package)
How to mitigate CVE-2026-42850
Install security update from vendor's website.
kitty - update to 0.47.0
kitty (Debian package) - update to 0.41.1-2+deb13u2
kitty (Debian package) - update to 0.41.1-2+deb13u2