Vulnerability details
CVE-2026-54525
Markdown Preview Enhanced: One Click RCE via Markdown Link Command Injection on Windows
Official 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.
CVSS scores
| Score | Version | Source | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.8High | 3.1 | CVEProject cvelistV5 (CNA) (GitHub_M) | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Versions | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| shd101wyy | vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced | < 0.8.28 | CVEProject cvelistV5 (CNA) |
References and advisories
7- https://github.com/shd101wyy/vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced/security/advisories/GHSA-7v6f-3vq6-r373 x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/crossnote/pull/442 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced/pull/2318 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/crossnote/commit/5588ca2121c3da43fe331575dc5cf4ef347b91ee x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced/commit/dcd80281c986293b93d9f1af34ced64dcb230c77 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/crossnote/releases/tag/0.9.29 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced/releases/tag/0.8.28 x_refsource_MISC
Details
- Published
- 2026-10-14
- Last updated
- 2026-10-15
- State
- Published
- Assigner (CNA)
- GitHub_M
Exploit prediction (EPSS)
SSVC assessment (CISA)
- Automatable
- No
- Exploitation
- None
- Technical impact
- Total
Weaknesses (CWE)
- CWE-78Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')