CVE-2026-43940 PUBLISHED

electerm: Path traversal in electerm runWidget leads to arbitrary code execution

Assigner: GitHub_M
Reserved: 04.05.2026 Published: 08.05.2026 Updated: 08.05.2026

electerm is an open-sourced terminal/ssh/sftp/telnet/serialport/RDP/VNC/Spice/ftp client. Prior to version 3.7.16, the runWidget function in src/app/widgets/load-widget.js constructs a file path by directly concatenating user‑supplied widget identifiers without any sanitisation. Because runWidget is exposed to the renderer process via an asynchronous IPC handler with no input validation, an attacker who achieves JavaScript execution inside the renderer (for example, through a malicious plugin or a cross‑site scripting flaw in the built‑in webview) can abuse a path traversal (../) to load and execute an arbitrary JavaScript file anywhere on the victim’s filesystem. This gives the attacker local code execution with the full privileges of the electerm process, leading to complete system compromise. This issue has been patched in version 3.7.16.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS Score: 8.4

Product Status

Vendor electerm
Product electerm
Versions
  • Version < 3.7.16 is affected

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') CWE
  • CWE-829: Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control Sphere CWE