CVE-2026-41253

high

Description

In iTerm2 through 3.6.9, displaying a .txt file can cause code execution via DCS 2000p and OSC 135 data, if the working directory contains a malicious file whose name is valid output from the conductor encoding path, such as a pathname with an initial ace/c+ substring, aka "hypothetical in-band signaling abuse." This occurs because iTerm2 accepts the SSH conductor protocol from terminal output that does not originate from a legitimate conductor session.

References

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47809190

https://iterm2.com/downloads.html

https://github.com/gnachman/iTerm2/commit/a9e745993c2e2cbb30b884a16617cd5495899f86

https://blog.calif.io/p/mad-bugs-even-cat-readmetxt-is-not

Details

Source: Mitre, NVD

Published: 2026-04-18

Updated: 2026-05-18

Risk Information

CVSS v2

Base Score: 7.2

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Severity: High

CVSS v3

Base Score: 7.8

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Severity: High

EPSS

EPSS: 0.00005