CVE-2026-54525
Markdown Preview Enhanced: One Click RCE via Markdown Link Command Injection on Windows
- State
- Published
- Severity
- 8.8 High
- Published
- Oct 14, 2026
- Updated
- Oct 15, 2026
- Reserved
- Jun 15, 2026
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.
Scores
| CVSS | Score | Vector | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | 8.8 High | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H | GitHub_M |
Weaknesses
- CWE-78 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
vscode-markdown-preview-enhancedshd101wyy |
|
References
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced/security/advisories/GHSA-7v6f-3vq6-r373
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/crossnote/pull/442
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced/pull/2318
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/crossnote/commit/5588ca2121c3da43fe331575dc5cf4ef347b91ee
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced/commit/dcd80281c986293b93d9f1af34ced64dcb230c77
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/crossnote/releases/tag/0.9.29
- https://github.com/shd101wyy/vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced/releases/tag/0.8.28
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