JabRef CAYW Sublime Text integration permits operating-system command injection
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- Active
- Attack complexity
- High
- Attack requirements
- Present
- Impact type
- Code execution
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 4.0 · CNA. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-78.
Summary
JabRef is a desktop application for managing BibTeX and BibLaTeX libraries. Prior to 6.0-alpha.6, when jabsrv or JabRef's built-in HTTP server is enabled, the GET /better-bibtex/cayw endpoint accepts an external command query parameter and CAYWQueryParams.getCommand() passes it through CAYWResource.getCitation() into PushToSublimeText.getCommandLine(). On Unix-like systems, PushToSublimeText combines this untrusted cite-command prefix and citation keys into a string executed through sh -c by ProcessBuilder without shell escaping. A client that can cause a localhost request with application=sublime can inject shell metacharacters and execute operating-system commands as the JabRef user when a valid Sublime Text command path is configured and the victim completes the CAYW selection dialog. The built-in server is disabled by default, so exploitation requires the victim to enable it or run jabsrv. This issue is fixed in version 6.0-alpha.6.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Total
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA jabref (JabRef) Fixed in 6.0-alpha.6
Vendor assessments
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-53534
- 2026-11-06 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-11-06 CVSS score added · Red Hat
References
More JabRef vulnerabilities
- TI-2018-16005 JabRef version <=4.3.1 contains a XML External Entity (XXE) vulnerability in… CVSS 3.0CRITICAL 10.0
Sources
- CVE-2026-53534 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-53534 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- CVE-2026-53534 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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