Kakoune has a Critical RCE via Autorestore Backup Filename Injection
21Vexday Risk Score
No sign of exploitation. No public exploitation artifact known so far.
ssvc Trackcvss 8.6epss 0.1%
exploitation probability
0.1%top 96% of all CVEs
observed exploitation
nono source reports it
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.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Affected products
mawww · kakoune