CVE-2026-44723 MEDIUM

CVE-2026-44723: Vowpal Wabbit: Shell injection via crafted PR title in python_checks.yml allows arbitrary command execution on CI runner

Vendor Vowpalwabbit
Product vowpal_wabbit
Weakness CWE-78
Published May 26, 2026
Last update May 28, 2026

CVSS base score

5.0/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required Low
User interaction None
Confidentiality Low
Integrity None

CVSS vector

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

What the vulnerability does

Description

Vowpal Wabbit is a machine learning system. The workflow .github/workflows/python_checks.yml embeds ${{ github.event.pull_request.title }} directly inside double-quoted bash strings in four separate steps across four jobs, each passing it as a CLI argument to the Python test script run_tests_model_gen_and_load.py. The shell interprets the expanded string before invoking Python, allowing an attacker to break out of the quotes and execute arbitrary commands on the runner. The pull_request trigger fires on PRs targeting any branch (branches: ['*']), with no additional access gate. This vulnerability is fixed by the 998e390e80a7e8192d7849b7784bc113dbd190ad commit.

Key dates

Disclosure timeline

May 26, 2026 CVE published
May 28, 2026 Record updated