JetBrains PyCharm EUVD-2026-60258

The vulnerability requires the victim to be running JetBrains PyCharm prior to version 2026.2.1 on their local workstation. The critical trigger condition is the user actively invoking the Quick Documentation feature (e.g., via F1, Ctrl+Q, or hovering) on a symbol whose documentation contains malicious HTML or JavaScript - this is the UI:R interaction. The malicious documentation must be reachable from within the open project, either via a directly installed package, a transitive dependency, or a locally checked-out library. Exploitation is limited to the IDE process context (S:U, scope unchanged); it does not automatically escalate to OS-level privileges. No network exposure is required. Factors that limit exploitation: the developer must actively trigger Quick Documentation on the specific malicious symbol, the attacker must control a package or file that the victim's project references, and impact is bounded to the IDE process rather than the broader system.

The CVSS base score of 4.4 (Medium) reflects a limited-impact, local-vector, user-interaction-required vulnerability. AV:L places the attack surface squarely within the developer's workstation, AC:L indicates no special exploit complexity, and UI:R means the victim must actively trigger Quick Documentation. The confidentiality and integrity impacts are both Low (C:L/I:L), and there is no availability impact. No EPSS data was provided, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. However, the RCE and XSS tags warrant attention: while CVSS scores the intrinsic severity as medium, the realistic supply-chain attack vector - where a malicious PyPI package embeds exploit code in its docstrings - elevates practical risk for developers who routinely inspect unfamiliar library documentation. The PR:N metric is notable: the attacker requires no system privileges, only that the victim open a project referencing malicious content. The low C/I impact ratings are consistent with IDE process-level access rather than OS-level compromise, but in practice IDE processes often hold authentication tokens, SSH keys, and environment variables. Overall this is a genuine developer-targeting risk, not merely a theoretical high-CVSS-low-real-world issue, but its severity is bounded by the local execution context and required user interaction.

A threat actor publishes a malicious Python package to PyPI with JavaScript or HTML payload embedded in one or more function or class docstrings. A developer installs the package, opens their project in a vulnerable version of PyCharm, and hovers over or presses the Quick Documentation shortcut on a symbol from the malicious package. The unsanitized markup renders in PyCharm's documentation panel, executing the embedded script in the IDE process context and potentially exfiltrating environment variables, API tokens, or SSH keys accessible to the IDE process.