CVE-2026-54525 Markdown Preview Enhanced: One Click RCE via Markdown Link Command Injection on Windows
Attackers can execute arbitrary commands on Windows by tricking users into clicking a crafted link in a Markdown preview within the VS Code extension.
- 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
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-54525?
CVE-2026-54525 is a high-severity command injection vulnerability in shd101wyy vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced, published on 14 Oct 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
Markdown Preview Enhanced is a Markdown preview extension for Visual Studio Code. Prior to 0.8.28, Markdown Preview Enhanced preview-link handling passes a decoded, Markdown-controlled link target to a Windows file-opening helper that invokes child_process.exec with the start command. When a Windows user opens an untrusted Markdown file and clicks a crafted external or unsupported-scheme link, shell metacharacters in the decoded target are interpreted by cmd.exe as command separators, allowing an attacker-selected command to run with the privileges of the current VS Code user. The attack requires one normal preview-link click but does not require malicious workspace configuration, script execution to be enabled, or additional files. This issue is fixed in version 0.8.28.
Weakness: CWE-78
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-54525?
How do I fix CVE-2026-54525?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-54525 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and pass arguments to programs as a list instead of through a shell. More about Command injection.
Is CVE-2026-54525 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-54525 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-7v6f-3vq6-r373.