CVE-2026-43941 CRITICAL

CVE-2026-43941: Unvalidated shell.openExternal in electerm allows arbitrary protocol execution via terminal link click

Vendor Electerm
Product electerm
Weakness CWE-88
Published May 8, 2026
Last update May 8, 2026

CVSS base score

9.6/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction Required
Confidentiality High
Integrity High

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

What the vulnerability does

01Description

electerm is an open-sourced terminal/ssh/sftp/telnet/serialport/RDP/VNC/Spice/ftp client. In versions 3.8.15 and prior, Electerm's terminal hyperlink handler passes any URL clicked in the terminal directly to shell.openExternal without any protocol validation. An attacker who controls terminal output (e.g., via a malicious SSH server, compromised remote host, or malicious plugin rendering terminal content) can thus achieve arbitrary code execution or local file access on the victim's machine, requiring only that the victim clicks a displayed link. At time of publication, there are no publicly available patches.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

May 8, 2026 CVE published
May 8, 2026 Record updated