# CVE-2026-40502: OpenHarness Remote Administrative Command Injection via Gateway Handler

> Remote attackers with chat access can inject administrative commands to escalate privileges and execute code on OpenHarness instances.

- **Severity:** High 8.7 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 16 Apr 2026
- **Updated:** 14 Jul 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-9w66-jgph-vx6j

## What is CVE-2026-40502?

CVE-2026-40502 is a high-severity command injection vulnerability in HKUDS OpenHarness, published on 16 Apr 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

OpenHarness prior to commit dd1d235 contains a command injection vulnerability that allows remote gateway users with chat access to invoke sensitive administrative commands by exploiting insufficient distinction between local-only and remote-safe commands in the gateway handler. Attackers can execute administrative commands such as /permissions full_auto through remote chat sessions to change permission modes of a running OpenHarness instance without operator authorization.

Weakness: CWE-862 (Missing Authorization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-40502?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Hkuds Openharness.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-40502?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-40502 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-40502 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-40502 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in HKUDS OpenHarness

- [CVE-2026-7551](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-7551/): HKUDS OpenHarness Remote Command Execution via /bridge Slash Command (high 8.7)
- [CVE-2026-6819](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-6819/): HKUDS OpenHarness Plugin Management Command Exposure (high 8.7)
- [CVE-2026-40515](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-40515/): OpenHarness Permission Bypass via grep and glob root argument (high 8.7)
- [CVE-2026-6823](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-6823/): HKUDS OpenHarness Insecure Default Remote Channel Allowlist (high 8.3)
- [CVE-2026-40516](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-40516/): OpenHarness SSRF via web_fetch and web_search (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-40502 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-40502 is a high-severity command injection vulnerability in HKUDS OpenHarness, published on 16 Apr 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-40502 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: HKUDS OpenHarness. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-40502/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-40502/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-40502
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-40502
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-40502

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-40502/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.