CVE-2026-42850 Kitty has a shell command injection

High 7.4 Published 12 Jun 2026 Updated 16 Jun 2026

Attackers can execute arbitrary shell commands on a victim's machine by sending specially crafted escape codes to a Kitty terminal session.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: A user has to click or open something
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2026-42850?

CVE-2026-42850 is a high-severity command injection vulnerability in kovidgoyal kitty, published on 12 Jun 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

Official description

Kitty is a cross-platform GPU based terminal. In versions prior to 0.47.0, it is possible to inject commands within the subshell through kitty error. A special escape code will make kitty return an error, this error is not escaped and will be correctly echoed back to the terminal with CRLF, as such it will be run by the shell in use. To exploit this bug, the victim must use a netcat or a similar program to connect to the attacker, or else listening for someone to connect. Once this condition is set, an attacker could pwn the computer of the victim using a special kitty's escape code that will run a command in the shell in use. Version 04.7.0 fixes the issue.

Weakness: CWE-77

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-42850?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Kovidgoyal Kitty.

How do I fix CVE-2026-42850?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

Upgrade, and pass arguments to programs as a list instead of through a shell. More about Command injection.

Is CVE-2026-42850 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-42850 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-42850, GHSA-p64q-59hq-5q65, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-42850.