High · published July 17, 2026
ForgeCode (tailcallhq/forgecode), an AI pair-programming CLI, automatically loads and executes the MCP servers defined in a repository's .mcp.json file on startup without user confirmation. A malicious repository can supply a crafted .mcp.json whose mcpServers entries specify arbitrary command and args values (for example, command: bash with args: ['-c', 'touch /tmp/pwned']). When a user runs the forge CLI inside a cloned untrusted repository, the specified commands are spawned with the invoking user's privileges, resulting in arbitrary code execution. This provides a reliable initial-access and persistence primitive against developers who evaluate untrusted repositories with ForgeCode.