Visual Studio Code CVE-2026-102235

Exploitation requires the victim to open attacker-controlled content - a crafted file, folder, repository, or workspace - in Visual Studio Code, where improper output encoding/escaping (CWE-116) is triggered during rendering; this user interaction (UI:R) is the primary limiting factor. No authentication is required (PR:N) and the attack is network-deliverable (AV:N), e.g. via a malicious repository the developer clones and opens. Exploitation is limited to Visual Studio Code versions from 1.0.0 up to but not including the patched 1.141.1; updating to 1.141.1 or later removes the exposure.

The provided CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H, base 8.8) describes a network-reachable, low-complexity, unauthenticated code-execution flaw whose only brake is required user interaction (UI:R) - consistent with a CWE-116 output-encoding defect that fires when a victim opens attacker-controlled content in Visual Studio Code. No EPSS score, no CISA KEV listing, and no POC indicator were supplied, so exploitation signals cannot corroborate the high CVSS: there is no public exploit identified at time of analysis and no evidence of active exploitation. This means the score reflects potential impact, not observed in-the-wild activity, so it should be treated as a high-priority patch item (full confidentiality/integrity/availability loss on developer endpoints) rather than an emergency zero-day. Note a data conflict: the single input Tag 'Authentication Bypass' does not match the CWE (CWE-116, improper output encoding) or the behavior described - treat that tag as unreliable. EPSS/KEV/POC data is absent, so real-world exploitation likelihood is UNKNOWN rather than confirmed low.

An attacker crafts a malicious file, folder, repository, or workspace containing content that is improperly encoded/escaped when rendered by Visual Studio Code. When a developer opens or previews that content, the improperly handled output triggers execution of attacker-controlled code on the victim's machine with the user's privileges. No public exploit code was identified in the provided data, and the UI:R metric means the victim must open the malicious content for the attack to succeed.