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.
Published: 2026-10-14
Score: 8.8 High
EPSS: n/a
KEV: No
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History

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 19:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
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.
Title Markdown Preview Enhanced: One Click RCE via Markdown Link Command Injection on Windows
Weaknesses CWE-78
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 8.8, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'}


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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: GitHub_M

Published:

Updated: 2026-10-14T19:06:59.440Z

Reserved: 2026-06-15T18:40:01.651Z

Link: CVE-2026-54525

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-10-14T19:17:17.480

Modified: 2026-10-14T19:17:17.480

Link: CVE-2026-54525

cve-icon Redhat

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cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

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Weaknesses