iTerm2 < 3.6.10 / < 3.7.0beta1 Arbitrary Code Execution (CVE-2026-41253)

medium Nessus Plugin ID 307903

Synopsis

An application installed on the remote macOS host is affected by an arbitrary code execution vulnerability.

Description

The version of iTerm2 installed on the remote host is prior to 3.6.10, or prior to 3.7.0beta1. It is, therefore, affected by an arbitrary code execution vulnerability:

- 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. This occurs because iTerm2 accepts the SSH conductor protocol from terminal output that does not originate from a legitimate conductor session.
(CVE-2026-41253)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Upgrade to iTerm2 version 3.6.10 / 3.7.0beta1 or later.

See Also

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

https://iterm2.com/downloads.html

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 307903

File Name: iterm2_macos_CVE-2026-41253.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Agent: macosx

Published: 4/21/2026

Updated: 4/21/2026

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: High

Score: 8.0

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.9

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-41253

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.9

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/a:iterm2:iterm2

Required KB Items: Host/MacOSX/Version, installed_sw/iTerm2

Patch Publication Date: 4/20/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 4/17/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-41253