CVE-2026-96442

Emacs: emacs: arbitrary code execution in flymake mode

State: Published
Severity: 7.8 High
Published: Sep 23, 2026
Updated: Oct 27, 2026
Reserved: Sep 23, 2026

Description

A code execution flaw was found in Emacs, affecting versions prior to 31.2. The Flymake mode using language backends other than Lisp would execute arbitrary code from the edited file while performing syntax checking. Viewing or editing untrusted files using Emacs could lead to arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the user running Emacs.

Scores

CVSS	Score	Vector	Source
3.1	7.8 High	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H	redhat

Weaknesses

CWE-94 Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')

Affected Products

Product	Versions
GNU EmacsGNU Emacs	before 31.2Affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10Red Hat	1:29.4-14.el10_2.3 and laterNot affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8Red Hat	1:26.1-15.el8_10.4 and laterNot affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8Red Hat	1:26.1-15.el8_10.4 and laterNot affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9Red Hat	1:27.2-18.el9_8.3 and laterNot affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Red Hat
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Red Hat

References

RHSA-2026:84591vendor-advisory
RHSA-2026:85245vendor-advisory
RHSA-2026:90800vendor-advisory
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-96442vdb-entry
RHBZ#2537347issue-tracking
https://github.com/emacs-mirror/emacs/commit/135e6f63f08fee3d374fa1a5187bce941a2d3e3c
https://github.com/emacs-mirror/emacs/commit/abc802ee2eb0b1663349ddf22a461f8e54a383fb
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/09/14/1

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