CVE-2026-43941CWE-601CWE-88

Unvalidated shell.openExternal in electerm allows arbitrary protocol execution via terminal link click

Critical · published May 8, 2026

CVSS v3.1
9.6
EPSS
1%
Percentile
42.9
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

electerm is an open-sourced terminal/ssh/sftp/telnet/serialport/RDP/VNC/Spice/ftp client. In versions 3.8.15 and prior, Electerm's terminal hyperlink handler passes any URL clicked in the terminal directly to shell.openExternal without any protocol validation. An attacker who controls terminal output (e.g., via a malicious SSH server, compromised remote host, or malicious plugin rendering terminal content) can thus achieve arbitrary code execution or local file access on the victim's machine, requiring only that the victim clicks a displayed link. At time of publication, there are no publicly available patches.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
9.6 · CRITICAL
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00513 · 42.9th percentile
Weaknesses
CWE-601 · URL Redirection to Untrusted Site ('Open Redirect'); CWE-88 · Improper Neutralization of Argument Delimiters in a Command ('Argument Injection')
Published
2026-05-08T03:01Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 08 MAY 03:01Z
    Unvalidated shell.openExternal in electerm allows arbitrary protocol execution via terminal link click
    cvelistv5