CVE-2026-75926

critical

Description

Hugo 0.161.0 placed the Node asset pipelines behind the Node.js permission model so that code running through PostCSS, Babel, or TailwindCSS could not reach the file system outside the project directory. Hugo 0.162.0 added tailwindcss to the AllowChildProcess default in config/security/securityConfig.go, which makes nodePermissionArgs in common/hexec/exec.go append --allow-child-process whenever the tool being launched is named tailwindcss. TailwindCSS loads the site's tailwind.config.js through require at startup, so top-level code in that file executes inside the permitted Node process and can call child_process to spawn a shell. The spawned process is not a Node process and inherits none of the permission flags, so it runs with the full privileges of the account performing the build. Building a site whose theme, module, or starter template supplies the Tailwind configuration therefore yields arbitrary command execution rather than the confined file access the permission model was introduced to enforce. Hugo 0.165.0 removes tailwindcss from the default security.exec.allow list, so the tool is no longer launched under the default configuration.

References

https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/hugo-to-x-node-permission-model-bypass-via-default-tailwindcss-child-process-grant

https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/issues/15178

https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/commit/8a55df7af2e6da31297245cc54fa2e3b521d93e8

https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/blob/v0.164.0/config/security/securityConfig.go#L72-L79

https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/blob/v0.164.0/common/hexec/exec.go#L292-L295

https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo

Details

Source: Mitre, NVD

Published: 2026-08-18

Updated: 2026-08-20

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: 8.6

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

Severity: High

CVSS v4

Base Score: 9.3

Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H

Severity: Critical

EPSS

EPSS: 0.00145