CVE-2026-23520 Arcane has a Command Injection in Arcane Updater Lifecycle Labels Enables RCE
An authenticated user can inject shell commands via lifecycle labels, leading to remote code execution when an administrator triggers a container update.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-23520?
CVE-2026-23520 is a critical command injection vulnerability in getarcaneapp arcane, published on 15 Jan 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
Arcane provides modern docker management. Prior to 1.13.0, Arcane has a command injection in the updater service. Arcane’s updater service supported lifecycle labels com.getarcaneapp.arcane.lifecycle.pre-update and com.getarcaneapp.arcane.lifecycle.post-update that allowed defining a command to run before or after a container update. The label value is passed directly to /bin/sh -c without sanitization or validation. Because any authenticated user (not limited to administrators) can create projects through the API, an attacker can create a project that specifies one of these lifecycle labels with a malicious command. When an administrator later triggers a container update (either manually or via scheduled update checks), Arcane reads the lifecycle label and executes its value as a shell command inside the container. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.13.0.
Weakness: CWE-78
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23520?
3 open source packages ship an affected version, including github.com/getarcaneapp/arcane/backend. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
github.com/getarcaneapp/arcane/backend Go | All versions | 0.0.0-20260114065515-5a9c2f92e11f |
github.com/getarcaneapp/arcane/backend Go | All versions | 0.0.0-20260114065515-5a9c2f92e11f |
github.com/getarcaneapp/arcane/backend Go | All versions | 0.0.0-20260114065515-5a9c2f92e11f |
Products include Arcane Arcane.
How do I fix CVE-2026-23520?
Upgrade github.com/getarcaneapp/arcane/backend to 0.0.0-20260114065515-5a9c2f92e11f or later.
Upgrade, and pass arguments to programs as a list instead of through a shell. More about Command injection.
Is CVE-2026-23520 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23520 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Public exploit code: 2 proofs of concept on GitHub.
Other vulnerabilities in getarcaneapp arcane
Sources
Also known as GHSA-gjqq-6r35-w3r8, GO-2026-4320.