CVE-2026-42851

PoC —

CVSS 3.1

7.8 high

EPSS

<1%p6

Published

Jun 12, 2026 (Jun 12, 2026)

Modified

Jun 17, 2026

Description

Kitty is a cross-platform GPU based terminal. In versions prior to 0.47.0, a program able to write bytes to a kitty terminal — a remote SSH peer, a downloaded file viewed with `cat`, a log line, an email body rendered in `less`, an issue body in a TUI, etc. — can cause kitty to execute attacker-supplied Python inside the running kitty process, with the user's full privileges. There is no approval prompt, no remote-control permission requirement, no shell-integration interaction, no clipboard touch, and no editor interaction. Version 0.47.0 fixes the issue.

Vendors: kovidgoyal
Products: kitty
Weakness: CWE-94, CWE-862
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

NVD CVE.org GitHub PoCs EPSS (0.2%)

In the news1 stories

USN-8763-1: kitty vulnerabilities

Ubuntu patches three kitty terminal flaws including remote command execution via crafted escape sequences.

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-8763-1 fixes multiple vulnerabilities in the kitty terminal emulator. CVE-2026-42850 allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands via improperly escaped error messages triggered by crafted terminal escape sequences. CVE-2026-42851 enables arbitrary code execution with the user's privileges through mishandled remote edit requests in terminal output. CVE-2026-54055 lets a local attacker overwrite arbitrary files via destination paths in kitty's file transmission protocol.

Ubuntu Security Notices13:31 UTC · 8h agoAdvisory CVE-2026-42850 CVE-2026-42851 CVE-2026-54055