Which versions of Kitty terminal are affected by CVE-2026-42850?

Kitty terminal emulator versions prior to 0.47.0 contain a remote command injection vulnerability allowing attackers to execute arbitrary commands through malicious escape sequences sent over network…. A patch is available.

How to fix or mitigate CVE-2026-42850?

Within 24 hours: Conduct organization-wide inventory of Kitty installations and identify users with external or untrusted system connections. Within 7 days: Restrict Kitty connections to internal systems only and implement network segmentation controls; evaluate alternative terminal emulators for high-risk workflows. Within 30 days: Deploy Kitty 0.47.0 or later to all systems once available, with validation in a staging environment first.

Kitty terminal CVE-2026-42850

Q: What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-42850?

CVE-2026-42850 has a CVSS 4.0 base score of 7.4 (High). CVSS 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/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X. EPSS exploitation probability: 0.1%.

EUVD-2026-36553 HIGH

Command Injection (CWE-77)

2026-06-12 security-advisories@github.com

Command Injection Kitty Suse

7.4

CVSS 4.0 · Vendor: github

Severity by source

Vendor (github) PRIMARY

7.4 HIGH

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/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

vuln.today AI

6.8 MEDIUM

Network reach via attacker bytes, but high complexity and required user action (victim must run netcat into Kitty); no auth needed; full RCE as user gives C:H/I:H, no availability impact stated.

3.1 AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

4.0 AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

SUSE

HIGH

qualitative

Primary rating from Vendor (github).

CVSS VectorVendor: github

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/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

High

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

Scope

Lifecycle Timeline

Patch available

Jun 12, 2026 - 21:01 EUVD

Analysis Generated

Jun 12, 2026 - 20:30 vuln.today

DescriptionCVE.org

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.

AnalysisAI

Command injection in Kitty cross-platform GPU terminal emulator versions prior to 0.47.0 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary shell commands on a victim's host by sending a crafted escape sequence over an attacker-controlled network connection. The terminal echoes its own error message - including attacker-controlled bytes - back to the shell with CRLF, causing the shell to execute the injected command. No public exploit identified at time of analysis, and the issue is not listed in CISA KEV.

Technical ContextAI

Kitty is a GPU-accelerated terminal emulator written primarily in Python and C, used widely on Linux and macOS. The flaw is a textbook CWE-77 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in a Command) issue in Kitty's escape-code handler: when the terminal receives a specially crafted escape code it cannot process, it emits its own error response back to the TTY without sanitizing carriage-return/line-feed sequences. Because the error string is written to the same TTY the user's shell reads from, the embedded CRLF terminates the in-progress shell input line and submits whatever followed it as a new command, effectively turning the terminal's own error path into a command-injection sink.

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patch: upgrade to Kitty 0.47.0 or later, per the GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-p64q-59hq-5q65 (https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/security/advisories/GHSA-p64q-59hq-5q65). Note the CVE description's reference to '04.7.0' is a typo for 0.47.0. Until upgrade is possible, avoid piping untrusted network data directly into a Kitty session - pipe through cat -v, less -R with control-character filtering, or tr -d '\r' to strip carriage returns before they reach the terminal, accepting that this breaks legitimate ANSI rendering. Disabling shell auto-execution on CR is not realistic, so the most defensible interim control is to run untrusted netcat/socat sessions inside a disposable container or a less feature-rich terminal (e.g., tmux inside a plain xterm) where Kitty's escape-code parser is not in the loop.