Ghostty affected by arbitrary command execution via control characters in paste and drag-and-drop operations
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Code execution
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-78.
Summary
Ghostty is a cross-platform terminal emulator. Ghostty allows control characters such as 0x03 (Ctrl+C) in pasted and dropped text. These can be used to execute arbitrary commands in some shell environments. This attack requires an attacker to convince the user to copy and paste or drag and drop malicious text. The attack requires user interaction to be triggered, but the dangerous characters are invisible in most GUI environments so it isn't trivially detected, especially if the string contents are complex. Fixed in Ghostty v1.3.0.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ghostty-org | ghostty | before 1.3.0 | 1.3.0 | Patch available | CNA |
- ghostty Vendorghostty-org Affected before 1.3.0 Fixed in 1.3.0 Patch available CNA
Remediation
- Fix · CNA ghostty (ghostty-org) Fixed in 1.3.0
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-26982
References
More ghostty-org vulnerabilities
- TI-2024-37672 Ghostty improperly handles window title sequences which can lead to arbitrary command execution CVSS 4.0MEDIUM 5.1
Sources
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences